


rust and stardust

by TelephoneCableSplicer



Category: B.A.P, Winner (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Android!Seungyoon, Androids, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Cameos, Implied Sexual Content, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 18:34:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13440783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TelephoneCableSplicer/pseuds/TelephoneCableSplicer
Summary: The inventions we were promised, the ones that were due to make our lives much more interesting do arrive, sooner or later; a smartwatch, a spaceship, a chronometer that turns back time. You can re-do the day, but you cannot change its end. And between soft smiles, warm coffees and dusty terrain of an asteroid —an android learned of love from a human being.





	rust and stardust

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt #58
> 
> • When Person A enters Person B’s coffee shop, he feels as if he’s been transported through time. Only, it’s not a feeling. It’s reality.  
> • Pairing/Rating: Any  
> • Please include: Time travel, Person B being unaware his shop is a time machine.  
> • Please exclude: None

 

 

 

 

The chronometer weight was heavy in his palm; ticking, moving —each second kept on passing-by unapologetically as the smooth copper surface of its body grew noticeably colder in his hold, to his brown synthetic skin.

 

His scanning eyes roamed helplessly at the chronometer, at all the slim, persistent hands; ticking, moving — _mocking_ him in their independent ticks, going forward steadily as if they were alive and breathing.

 

Lying rigid in his hand, the devices' purpose was so clear to him; as a timepiece. It was an object to help guide him, to help ground him, to remind him that time exists. And yet, the little copper's objective at _that_ particular moment, at that particular time eluded him, greatly confusing him.

 

How can the ticking not stop, when he just had his whole world came to a crashing halt?

 

_'Jinwoo.'_

 

He cannot think. His high-end processors that ran on quantum bits, mightier even than any common binary electronics; seemed to have malfunctioned. That was the only plausible explanation. His thoughts seemed to have lost it, gotten stuck, broken. Everything seemed unreal, upsetting.

 

As upsetting, as the image of the body of a man, currently lying in a pool of blood at his feet was.

 

Yes, upsetting and _painful._

 

_'Don't,'_ his mind stated desperately. _'You can't die,'_ his circuits were going haywire. The scene before him was too much, too sudden. He was not prepared for the unexpected outcome.

 

_'You can't die.'_

 

His hand shook, gripping the chronometer tighter, almost breaking it with his reinforced veins and steely strength as he stared down his feet, watched as the beautiful man's skin gradually turned deathly pale —human body expectantly going rigid after death.

 

He glanced up then, watching bitterly at some other fatally wounded people lying on the cafe's floor, almost all of them already dead. The smell of metallic tang of iron from splattered blood combined with scattered coffee grounds and broken caffeine pots were heavy and choking in the air.

 

His eyes grew cold.

 

The others were not important. None of them were important enough for him to press the decisive reset button underneath his thumb, on the chronometer in his hand.

 

He caught the sight of the coffeehouse owner, the man was struggling desperately to get back on his ruined, bionic feet; steel legs busted, torso covered in his own blood and groaning in pain from his bullet wounds. He was wheezing his last, pathetic breath. That man was not important enough too.

 

_'Unlike Jinwoo,'_ his mind supplied in a somber note.

 

He knelt, one knee getting soaked in the puddle of the man's warm blood. _'Kind, gentle, surprisingly strong; Kim Jinwoo,'_ he mused, a sad smile graced his face as he held the man's upper body in his arms, bringing Jinwoo closer.

 

_"You came back... for me. You remember me?"_

_"I do."_

_"Why?"_

_" I am yours, aren't I?"_

 

"I'll fix it. I'll do everything I can for you, Jinwoo," he uttered in remorse, sliding the pink matted bangs aside to stare longingly at the pale face, the closed eyes, the purpling lips —the man was still so, _so_ beautiful; even in death.

 

He thought he heard a choked sob somewhere and it could not have come from him, even when he was the only one left alive. _'It cannot be me,'_ for he was an android, a robot, _a machine_ that runs on calculations instead of  
feelings. He cannot feel sadness, he cannot feel hopelessness. But there was undoubtedly a crushing heaviness in him since the moment he witnessed Jinwoo getting shot and fell to the floor.

 

He was taken aback when his own mechanized body started to shake in what his mind blindly categorized as apprehension and regret. Bringing Jinwoo's cold, bloodied hand to his lips —he kissed the back of the stilled fingers chastely in a silent apology.

 

He could have prevented it. Why did he not? Why did his processors not compute fast enough? Why did he not notice the guns? Why did he not pull Jinwoo out of harm's way?

 

Now, he needed to do something, he needed to fix it. He must press the reset button, he must re-do it.

 

_"Can you feel love, Yoon?"_

_"Love and feelings, are emotional labors that are hard for machinery like me to simulate."_

 

As an Artificial Intelligence, he does not believe in god. He does not believe in destiny or fate.

 

How could he? When he was not programmed to do so.

 

How could he? When he was assembled from carbon and lead instead of meat and bones. When his mind was made of many microchips instead of a brain and complicated neurons. When he has countless nanomachines running inside his body instead of blood cells.

 

How could he? When he was a product made not by God, but by _humans._

 

So, he does not believe in higher beings.

 

But curiously, at that very moment as his grip on the chronometer grew tighter —he _pleaded_ on the device, on his invention, feeling the bumps and surface of the timepiece growing more prominent in his palm; he pleaded for a miracle. He found himself praying to an unknown entity for it to work. He prayed that he would be given a chance to start over again, to bring Jinwoo back.

 

He brought the device up, thumb resting on the reset button, ready to press it down. He had to do it, he was there to test it in the first place anyway. If he succeeds, it will be a breakthrough in the field of time travel. If he fails, he will create a giant black hole —and it, in turn, will suck everything in their galaxy.

 

_"So, how about it? With a tulip art on top? That'll put a smile on anyone's face, yeah?"_

_"Sure. I'd like that a lot, thank you.”_

 

His calculations were off. His creator reminded him that if the testing would result in doomsday, then he should not go through with it since billions of lives will be at stake. And that may be true but what of Jinwoo; who had his life robbed so unexpectedly?

 

_'Death is that way. Unexpected. Who are you to undo what fate had clearly laid for you?'_ He questioned himself. But was is not a given opportunity, this tragedy at hand? He pondered with himself. But it was also a given opportunity, this tragedy at hand. He had a perfectly sound reason to try the chronometer. If he does not try the device now, then how would they hope to achieve technological advancement for humanity's sake?

 

_'Is it really for their sake? You're simply making up your own excuses. You'll do it anyway, even when there is none to back your reasoning.'_ He gripped the device tighter, stared at the man's porcelain face, at the unmoving body in his arms. _'But it's the perfect opportunity. This, now,'_ his mind urged, but a small margin of his brain argued that _It's not._

 

From his point of view, it seemed to him that both end results of him using the chronometer; either to be able to travel back through time or to be obliterated by a massive black hole —are fair trades, in terms of equivalent exchange. His goal is to test time and its relations; the stakes will always be too high a price to pay, when you are toying with the fine threads of time and cosmic balance.

 

And what does he have to lose when he had already lost the one he cared the most? _Nothing,_ he had nothing to lose. Jinwoo was his reason to keep going and now the man was gone; so he will do this. He will turn back Time for the man, no matter the consequences.

 

He held the man securely against his chest, burrowing his face into the soft pink strands, the blood on the floor already cooling against his knees. "I'll save you, Jinwoo," he rasped the words intensely; pinching his eyes shut, trepidation sitting heavily in his core.

 

He heard the loud _.click._ of the chronometer in the empty and still coffeehouse. He had pushed the reset button down.

 

***

 

 

At first, he started out as something less amazing than a humanoid unit. He was first made as a surveillance drone; a Dedicated Personal Security drone or a DPS drone for short.

 

He was a fancier version of a normal helicam; with a quadcopter body, 360° camera, camouflage ability, satellite GPS tracker, simultaneous scanning of the environment within 30 feet distance and 14 days’ worth of battery lifespan with just a minimal 10 minutes charging time. He was by far the most advanced, non-military drone. A product that was on top of his class with a simple preprogrammed job.

 

As his name stated, his only objective was to dedicate his whole computing power into calculating on how to keep his buyer, or owner; safe. His kind spent a lot of their time scanning various things; from their owner's surroundings, the places' electronics and safety hazards, their owner's health, anything at all that could bode as potential danger —and report back their findings to the humans or notify the responsible parties or authorities for further actions.

 

His line of drone units also possessed the most massive memory storage system on their own Cloud server to keep their valuable data and learn as many prevention methods as they could to take care of their owner's well-being.

 

It was autumn when he was released to the market. A fresh batch of DPS drones shipped out from the factory and had ended up being displayed in a spotless mirror casing in a high-end shop somewhere in South Korea. He was bought surprisingly by a peculiar pair of moody, yet free-spirited young adults who were asteroid miners. They introduced themselves as Himchan and Yongguk, and they named him Yoon.

 

Yoon had a hard time taking care of them.

 

As he exchanged data and journals with other drone units online, he learned that some of the drones spent most of their days either scanning their owner's cars for constant maintenance work or scanning their ailing owner's blood cells and updating their healthcare check-ups only. _Their_ tasks as Dedicated Personal Security drones sounded way easier than his was. _He_ on the other hypothetical hand had ended up scanning something entirely different.

 

His owners were a pair of space miners, so he had to constantly check their space vehicle; a transporter, for any major overhaul works after months, sometimes years of frequent space travel. He also had to survey the dusty surface of their expeditions for potential dangers or unknown foreign molecules that might be hazardous to humans.

 

Double-checking their oxygen tanks had become a daily habit for him even when they were not using them because once, Yongguk had accidentally run low while the man was on an asteroid surface, miles away from their transporter. It gave his system a panic jolt because his owner was slowly dying under his care. It was an experience that he did not want to repeat.

 

He was always scanning for hostile meteoroids too when their transporter traveled faster than it should be as his owners were often in a haste to get somewhere _. 'Youngblood,'_ was what one of his fellow units had mentioned under their journal on Cloud server; that unit was responsible for taking care of an Extreme Sports athlete. His fellow units agree that these young humans' rashness was what made their job fun but also a hassle to deal with.

 

He stayed by Himchan and Yongguk's side for almost a decade, blending in around Himchan's constant chattering and Yongguk's quiet talks. They had an interesting chemistry of being each other's pillars; both in their relationship and in work. And his owners cannot seem to stop traveling; from the moon to Mars, to unstable meteorites, back and forth - but rarely back home to Earth. He wanted to ask _'Why?'_ but he did not think his job was to pry no matter how much he cared for them.

 

On one day, years after years of mining the stifling Mars surface, his owners decided that their next job will be at the famous, 'money-back-guaranteed' and equally dangerous mining spot; the asteroid belt. As lucrative as mining at rocks closer to the sun for some amounts of nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen needed by the moon base and Mars ISS —it was no longer an appeal for the hardworking duo.

 

He compiled data on his owners’ tendencies' and learned that they appreciate steadiness but would rather venture forth to satisfy their yearning for more enthusiastic jobs. Himchan hated monotony and Yongguk feared if he would somehow miss a chance of doing something _more._ So they had been steadily pushing their limits as independent miners from year to year.

 

 

 

"How's your migraine?" Himchan asked, head buried deep in books he excavated from the ship's storage room —works and volumes about the asteroid belt and Jupiter.

 

Yongguk glanced at his partner from his hunching position on his worktable, fixing a broken tracker, screwing and soldering new capacitors on a small circuit board; "It comes and goes, but never for too long."

 

His partner hummed a reply from his own perch at the side of the room. Himchan took a quick note of the older man, seeing that only Yongguk's insomnia seemed to be the reason for the haggard appearance and not any other demons. "It is about _that_ time of the year," he hinted, worried about the man's sometimes shiftless state. "Wanna take a break? Hang out at the ISS for a few months? It's been awhile since we last saw the guys," he suggested in a lighthearted note.

 

"Nah. I'm okay," came the calm reply.

 

"You sure?" Himchan asked, narrowing his eyes a little. "You're not pushing yourself, are you? It's not the first time you're doing it," he mildly jabbed at the man. There were times when Yongguk was really feeling out of it but refused to share anything with his partner. Himchan likes to be double, triple sure —for the older man's own sake. "We can rest for a while, I think we should."

 

"Told you, I'm okay," Yongguk replied, looking amused in his hunching, even with all of Himchan's insistence. He found it adorable; the man's concern for him —and he knew Himchan _knew_ he thought that way, and that made the younger man bristled further in irritation.

 

"Pshh, yeah right, but sure, whatever," Himchan grumbled back, slamming the book he was reading shut and tossing it away, belatedly saying sorry to Yoon for almost hitting him with it. He picked up another big volume to read. Honestly, for him, his tablet and the internet are easier to navigate when doing a research; true, but books were more practical for him in ways that it helps him to absorb information in a linear path. He was not a genius like Yongguk, the older man was a complete opposite of him with how Yongguk just seemed to soak  
up knowledge like a sponge to wet puddle.

 

"Remember what the doc said; don't overdo it. Read somewhere online some dude got their head exploded while on a pressurized surface," Himchan tapped at his temple with a frown. "Cause of a headache, you know? One minute he's okay and then _Bam!_ —brain matters all over his visor," he said, making an awful face at the imagery.

 

Yongguk chuckled; "That's ridiculous. Those gossip forums you're reading sure is something, it's no wonder you're hooked on it."

 

"It's the only source of entertainment out here, get off my case," Himchan bristled. Yongguk grinned at him. "Laugh all you want, Yongguk-ah. I'm just concerned, you know? Like, shit, you can't make me clean up _your_ pink brain juices man, ever. I'll scream at you, I swear to god." He tossed the book away again, he hates reading but he needs to be prepared for their next job.

 

"You won't have to cause it won't happen. And our brains are mostly gray with black, or white color. Not really red," Yongguk said, snapping the case of the gadget he was fixing shut after he was done with the soldering.

 

"I don't care, and anything can happen out here. Remember when you-"

 

"Channie, relax," Yongguk uttered calmly, leaning his chin on his palm on the table and gave his partner a reassuring smile. "I'm okay," he said, deep voice tint in ways to mollify Himchan's agitation. The younger frowned at the soothing tone but belatedly gave in, his body seemed to physically deflate all of its tension.

 

The younger man sighed tiredly, looking at the older man sitting not too far away from him. "All right,.. But you'll tell me if you're _not_ though, okay?" Himchan insisted, and Yongguk nodded indulgingly back. Himchan snorted with a small smile, before his forehead went back to its usual frown; "Brain _juices,_ " he hissed the last word in mild repulsion.

  
Yongguk simply chuckled; "I will not push myself, I promise."

  
Yoon noticed that the cloying tension in the room that had been steadily brewing between the two men since days ago, slowly dissipated away. He could never understand how quarrelsome his owners are towards each other and yet they managed to stick together since they were young —how annoyance and exasperation could disguise themselves as love and care. Human relationships are more complicated than rocket science for the drone.

 

"No, like seriously, if you don't then I'm leaving your ass behind and hang out with the losers at ISS instead. I'm serious, Gukk-ah," Himchan started again, breaking the tender atmosphere only moments ago.

 

"So am I. Why are you so pissy today?"

 

"I'm pissy every day! It's my Standard Mode," the younger stated in a huff.

 

"Yeah, I know. And Yoon kept reminding me about that Standard Mode of yours, how it's a hazard to your health. Your _blood pressure,_ Channie." Yongguk 'tsk'ing at him.

 

"And your _brain,_ Yongguk," Himchan retorted back. The older man simply shrugged. "Thought so. Also, you really wanna do this? The asteroid belt?"

 

Yongguk mused for a while, letting the drone scan the fixed device and waited for the green light. When Yoon stated that the device was properly fixed and safe to use, he smiled up at the drone, thanking him and watching it flew away. "Yeah, I think we're ready."

 

Himchan nodded; "Sounds fun. Let's do it."

 

"Are you worried?"

 

A groan came from across the room. "The hell kind of question is that? Yes, I'm worried, it's the belt. If you're heading there then so am I. Someone needs to look out for you," Himchan said, glaring at the older man, daring him to make fun of his concern.

 

"Yoon can take care of me if you're not up to it," the older man teased.

 

"Little guy doesn't even have opposable thumbs, what are you saying? Who's going to zip-up your spacesuit?" Yongguk replied with a raised eyebrow, whispering 'or unzip it', earning a tossed pen. "Stop laughing. And you should get some rest. Look at you, your eye bags have bags!"

 

"Lonely. Come be my bolster?" The older man murmured his request. Himchan rolled his eyes skyward and stood up.

 

"Ugh, you big baby. The things I do for you," he replied readily though, with a small smile playing on his lips.

 

***

 

 

The day came when they finally ran out of valuable spots on the red planet to drill. Yoon was not surprised to learn just how fast his owners had handily sent an official mining inquiry for a chance to dig at the asteroid belt; a place of constantly crashing rocks and actively pulverized planetesimals area that was amazingly pulled together by the sun's gravity to form a galactic rock ring.

 

When his owners had finally landed on the mining town built on top of a stabilized S-type asteroid at the belt between Mars and Jupiter, the place was full of independent miners from Earth, from the moon base and from Mars ISS. The miners in their various spacesuits and dim-glowing gears seemed to stand out more on the asteroid's dusty surface. The place was not much to look at; there was a head office where miners go to in order to settle their legal papers, a sizeable refueling depot station for parked transporters, a small one floor motel, and a coffeehouse that doubled as a mini diner —all of which were built in gray stones, inside an old geodesic dome.

 

Yoon hovered behind his owners as they entered the coffeehouse first, the electronic chime of a short, catchy jingle surprised him when the entrance door slid open. He curiously flew upward, scanning the door and the connecting speaker, conveying his approval to the welcoming system for their innovative job. He stored the merry sound in his disk, hoping that it will come in handy at any appropriate chance in the future.

 

"Hi, welcome to The Stray. New miners?" The stranger behind the counter beamed easily at his owners as they strutted in clad in their skintight spacesuits, similar to the milling people around them. The man's hair who had greeted them was _very pink,_ the drone noted. "Have you filled in the legal mining forms?"

 

His owners sat on a few opened high stools at the countertop island near the cash register, Himchan looking around the small establishment with interest while Yongguk tried his best to lay-low, trying to be unmindful of the crowd.

 

"Yeah, we submitted our forms two months ago, online. We're here to get our asteroid number and coordinate," Himchan replied as he breathed in the familiar scent of ground coffee beans and fried food. He was salivating badly since they had only been living on preheat meals and canned food for years.

 

"It was _three_ months ago," Yongguk interjected without any bite, scrutinizing the screen on the walls behind the counter for lists of foods and beverages. There were not much but even a simple serving of an English-breakfast plate and a cup of a strong black coffee sounded luxurious to him at that moment.

 

Himchan took note and nodded to his partner's words; "We've been hanging around Mars orbit for a while, waiting for a reply, but it took too long. So we decided to just drop in."

 

"Ah, the head office is a little backed up," the man behind the counter said with an apologetic smile, but Yoon did not think that anyone could get upset at his very likable face. "Not a lot of safe asteroids left for mining, so they need to choose carefully." He then propped his chin on the heel of his hand, leaning forward as his eyes caught the sight of a drone hovering near the shop's ceiling, scanning the patrons and the structure of the place without reserve, it was his job after all.

 

Himchan picked the menu in front of him up, flipping it over. "Yeah, we know. But we have this little fella. He scans everything for us, so we should be all right no matter what type of rock we got," he said, shrugging his shoulder towards the drone behind him.

 

"I noticed. Isn't that the famous DPS drone?" The man asked with sparkling eyes. Himchan and Yongguk nodded at his excitement. "I've never seen one with my own eyes before. It's so sleek. Hey, didn't they say this drone unit is very expensive though?"

 

"We're asteroid miners, aren't we? We're kinda loaded even if the job is fucking rigorous," Himchan grunted, blowing his stray bangs aside from falling over his own eyes. Yongguk chastised him lightly to mind his cursing around people.

 

"I trust your words," the pink-haired man replied kindly. "Would you like to order anything? Oh, what is it doing now?" He pulled out a small tablet while keeping an eye on the flying drone, watching it hover restlessly near the ceiling as to not bother any tired, grumpy customers.

 

Himchan turned halfway around to look at the drone and smirked, "He's scanning you, I think. But trying to make it seem like he's not. He likes cute stuff."

 

The pink haired man beamed brightly at that, grinning from ear to ear; it was obvious the man had grown accustomed to such praises. "It behaves so cutely, like a pet. And those tiny beeping noises he makes," he cooed at the drone, the little machine flew further away as he noticed all three humans were paying their attention to him. "But if you don't mind me prying a bit, why do you have one? They were pulled off the market after.. after that, you know.. _the incident,_ right?" He asked in a whisper to the duo, not wanting to hurt the drone's feelings if he happened to hear them.

 

"Yeah, they were. And don't worry, he knows he's an illegal little shit on the run. That's why we don't go back to Earth anymore for his sake," Himchan said, waving the man's concern and whispering off. He thanked the guy when they were each served two glasses of cold water. "An English-breakfast set for me, please. And a mug of cappuccino would be nice."

 

The man blinked uncertainly at Himchan's confession of openly owning an illegal robot, before simply brushing it aside —he had witness offenses more severe than that in his lifetime working at the only coffeehouse-cum-diner on the far end of the space.

 

He took the orders on his little tablet and raised an eyebrow at Yongguk. "Same, but with iced Americano, please." After their orders were keyed-in and the man made them their craved coffees, the quiet Yongguk surprisingly continued the previous conversation with their host. "It wasn't their fault, really. The drones."

 

"What do you mean?"

 

"Them, for being pulled off the market," Yongguk thumbed at their little drone's direction. "The story was —the mugger jumped their owner, and the drone saw that the only way to prevent their human from getting stab to death was to physically interfere with the situation."

 

Himchan snorted from his seat; "Interfere? You mean to _detonate_ itself, blowing up both the mugger and the drone," he commented casually, sipping his mug of freshly made cappuccino. He schooled his face as he had a taste of the drink, it was _bad._ Yongguk grinned from behind his; sharing Himchan's suffering because his was equally as bad too.

 

"So that drone unit really murdered someone?" Their clueless server asked sadly, a worried frown appearing on his otherwise smooth forehead.

 

Himchan shrugged; "He did his job, aight? His owner was saved. Poor little bub though, sacrificing himself like that."

 

The man behind the counter gave the hovering drone near them a sympathetically smile, before moving away to the back to get a few of his customers' made orders. The drone had scanned all the foods and the machines in the kitchen beforehand. The place owned a wide variety of raw ingredients and frozen meats but the way the food was prepared was nowhere different than preheated goods. Yoon considered that after the coffee, his owners will be met with another disappointing fair.

 

Two sizeable plates were served before them, Himchan and Yongguk immediately gobbled down the food, almost choking on how bland everything tasted. The pink haired man smiled easily at the duo, probably thinking that they were enjoying the served food fairly. "So.. your drone; they're basically a flying bomb, ready to be triggered?" He asked innocently after the plates were half emptied, the men drinking their beverages with twin winces.

 

Himchan coughed a bit, feeling some thick oil residue from the food getting stuck in his throat. He and Yongguk were better cooks than the guy it seemed. "Yup. But you don't have to worry though, they're actually really, really good," the younger man replied, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "We didn't want to return him, he's like a family now, and no one is gonna waste their time tracking one missing drone in space. As long as we keep him away from Earth, we should be fine. Won't we buddy?" Himchan called out to the drone, which then used the merry jingle sound he just acquired as a response. All three of them laughed at it.

 

The pink haired man was still smiling when he commented; "It's really adorable. But it's sad that they're dangerous."

 

"Nu'uh, hell no, seriously. Trust me when I say that this guy wouldn't even hurt a fly!" Himchan exclaimed earnestly, face full of pride and words heavy with adoration for the drone. Yongguk rolled his eyes fondly at his partner.

 

"But he will eradicate the entire fly population if Himchan or I die from accidentally choking on one though. It'll store _'Fly'_ inside his database as something hazardous," Yongguk grinned from behind his mug. Himchan nodded and shrugged easily.

 

"O-oh,.." The pink-haired man's smile faltered a bit at that. Himchan called the drone over, making sure it was hovering close behind their shoulders, facing the stranger.

 

"Yoon, say hello to our new host. We're gonna be here for a while so you should get to know the people around here. Be nice to him, okay?"

 

The drone beeped in response, scanning the new guy from head to toe again and stored all the man's data, all his history on the net, his date of birth, his available medical records (it was illegal, but he had been reprogrammed by Yongguk to do so), his education and employment history into the Cloud server. The drone beamed a message to Himchan's smartwatch.

 

_.Hello. I'm Yoon._

 

Himchan raised his watch and showed it to the man with an amused smirk. Their host's clear, doe-like eyes read the message and looked up at the drone, a pleasant smile gracing his face. "Hello, Yoon. I'm Jinwoo. It's nice to meet you," the man replied back easily.

 

The smile was beautiful. It was something that Yoon's circuit had calculated as something to be treasured. So, he stored the image of Jinwoo's smiling face in the same folder as he stored Himchan and Yongguk's classified data that only he could access. It made sense to do so.

 

***

 

 

Outer space mining had been made easier through the years. Because of the lack of gravity in space, miners were now well equipped with multiple reinforced safety cables. Their extraction machines were made to be much lighter, and they could operate with smaller numbers of people in a project —but fewer people also meant shortage in rescue effort if an accident were to occur. Even with an advanced security drone on their team, it would not stop any unexpected mishaps from happening.

 

And _happened,_ it did.

 

As usual, before they start their mining cycle, Himchan and Yongguk would place thrusters around the surface of the rock that they were currently on to help stabilize it; by then it had become second nature for them, they did it efficiently. The thrusters would not hold a floating rock still, but it would at least lessen its rotation. The devices did their job well, but it had also, unfortunately, placed them on the path of raining comets coming from the outer ring that day; the small, unexpectedly dangerous debris fell on them so suddenly that they were not prepared for it.

 

A parachute-like canopy that his owners used to collect their raw minerals was drilled to the surface of the asteroid, tied by enforced cable ropes. It was filled almost to the brim with their dug minerals and ores after exhausting hours of mining; big chunks of rocks lumped together in a Ballistic Nylon sack. And one of the ropes was accidentally cut in half when that sudden hailstorm of comets rained on their mining spot.

 

The cable broke; their collected ores flew off, huge rocks gravitated away at various speeds and some had gravely struck Himchan hard from the front. His visor was cracked dangerously, his oxygen supply dropping fast, his grappling hook was snapped clean. The man was almost propelled into space before Yongguk spontaneously caught the end trail of his partner's snapped line. The older man pulled an unconscious, bleeding and severely injured Himchan back to him, then dragged the man back to their transporter under the raining ice debris hurriedly.

 

As Yongguk laid Himchan in their only cryo-bed in the ship's small medical room, Yoon scanned the extent of the younger man's injuries and found that Himchan was teetering between life and death. Broken ribcage, ligament damaged from a whiplash, spinal cord, shoulders, hips; all cracked in various places.The extent of his owner's injuries was too severe as the force he took was similar to being crushed by a boulder.

 

Yongguk's helmet hits the floor as he removed it urgently, the brunet quickly put on the oxygen mask over Himchan's face. "Yoon? What do we do? How bad is it?" Yongguk asked tightly; he was covered in Himchan's blood, eyes already going red from holding back his tears and looking the most frightened Yoon had ever seen him.

 

But his distraught owner did not wait for Yoon's reply when the drone did a double-scan on the injured man once again. Yongguk immediately went and pressed an absorbent cloth over the most severe of Himchan's opened wound, spraying it down with a cooling agent to help stop the bleeding. The drone finished his scanning and came to hover beside the cryo-chamber, getting Yongguk's attention.

 

_.His wounds are severe. Himchan needs urgent surgery._

_.Prepare him for the cryo-bed. Dose him three times the usual amount. It will put him in clinical death._

_.Earth's coordinate will be set. We'll use slipspace jump to shorten the travel, it'll take us up until Mars._

 

The older man was already done with his first shot as he switched between reading the messages on Himchan's bloody smartwatch and injecting his partner's arm, he questioned the drone again; "Go back to Earth?"

_.Yes. We can't perform the surgery here even with my detailed instructions. You don't have enough skills, we don't have the equipment._

 

Yongguk nodded distractedly. He bit his bottom lip and held his breath as he filled a second syringe with the same strong chemical substance he had injected Himchan a few seconds ago. One dose will freeze a person's lungs; three doses would freeze Himchan's entire body. As Yoon said; _clinically dead._

 

"Will we make it in time? Before his brain collapsed from the anodynes?" The older man asked, trying his hardest to still his shaking hands as he administered the shot, Himchan's vitals slowly dropping.

 

_.Barely. High possibility; no. I'm sorry, Yongguk._

 

Yongguk was quiet as he continued his task to finish dosing his partner. When he was done, they waited for the monitor beside the chamber to turn green; signaling Himchan's stable vitals. When it finally did, Yongguk chocked out a relieved sigh and fell to his knees beside the bed. The drone hovered quickly to the brunet, scanning him up and down for any injuries.

 

"I'm fine," Yongguk said airily after a while. "Yoon, we'll slipspace straight to Earth. We need to make it in time to save Himchan," his owner said of all the sudden, desperation painted in his eyes.

 

The human did not need to read the smartwatch he had taken off from his partner's wrist to know how against the plan Yoon was at his words. The drone bombarded the smartwatch with messages consisting chances rate of failing; their transporter was too small to handle the force of a distant warp, it will crush the ship along with the occupants inside. Yongguk would also need to dose himself with the same chemical as Himchan to avoid blood clot during a hyper-jump, but without the cryo-chamber to help regulate his body system, he could suffer a brain damage or fall into a comatose state.

 

"Code Red on the chamber," Yongguk instructed anyway, ignoring the beeping watch while taking off his mining gear one by one in a single-minded urgency. "Go and notify home. I'll get us ready." Yoon flew directly in front of the older man's face, stopping him from taking a step forward.

 

_.No, Yongguk. I failed in protecting Himchan. I will not let myself fail in protecting you too._

 

Yongguk eyed the message, his face remained impassive. "Yoon, just go and do it."

 

_.No. You're not thinking straight from the shock._

 

"If you won't do it, I can very well do everything myself. Please, Yoon, don't make me shut you down."

 

_.I'll taser you if it's the only way to stop you._

 

"Yoon!" The older man shouted desperately in anger and grabbed onto the hovering drone, one of its blades accidentally grazed Yongguk's palm —deep, red blood pouring out, but the brunet did not even acknowledge it. He held onto the idle drone as Yoon immediately powered down his propellers to avoid harming his owner further.

 

"Yoon, I've no time to explain to you just how important Himchan is to me," Yongguk stated, voice shaking in pain and eyes turning glassy again. "He's not just my partner, he's _everything._ He's the reason I'm still alive and I would fight for him, compromise for him, I would fucking sacrifice myself just to save him," the older man whispered harshly. He released the drone to hover in front of him, noticing the cut on his palm. He stared at the blood dripping from the wound and brought his gaze back to the unconscious man in the pod, Yongguk's pale face turned rigid once again, hiding his torrent of emotions behind a solid wall.

 

"Yoon, please. I know you're trying to protect me and you don't understand _why_ I'm willing to risk it all. But he's everything to me. Please, Yoon... I must try."

 

The drone hovered for a tense minute in the air, calculating all other available options that had maybe slipped his attention, but he came up empty.

 

_.Okay._

 

The DPS drone was confused and very unsure of himself for agreeing with Yongguk's request but he headed out to their ship's main terminal anyway, sending out S.O.S signal to the space embassy of South Korea. He forwarded the list of Himchan's extensive injuries, both of his owners' medical records, all the personal details needed, their ETA and transporter's information —and set course for Earth. It took him more than 20 minutes to settle it all, having to resend the files over and over after multiple failed attempts as they were quite far in deep space.

 

He flew back to the medical bay after he was finished and saw Himchan already in the process of being frozen in the cryo-chamber, the lid was shut and frost slowly fogging up the pod's glass. Yongguk stood beside the bed in his normal, clean, latex spacesuit; staring at his partner quietly. He held a syringe in his hand, the aqua blue liquid had filled three-quarter of the tube with its eerie fluorescent glow. It was the same chemical substance that would put him to sleep, the same way it did Himchan.

 

"Yoon, land on the S-type Mining Town first," Yongguk said, voice unimaginably somber —Yoon was caught off guard by it. The brunet reads the question in his smartwatch and gave a pained smile to the drone. "If Himchan won't make it, or if we're unlucky and ended up being pulverized by the speed... at least you'll be alive. He'd want that for you."

 

Yoon cannot understand the term of _being alive;_ to continue on functioning without an owner to protect. He did not mind following Yongguk and Himchan back to Earth, even if he would end up getting terminated like the rest of his units. His humans were his priorities, not him. They might need his input, his safety measures, his care, he ought to be with them. Whatever happens to him will not be important.

 

He was about to protest when Yongguk had suddenly walked and stood in front of the silently hovering drone. "Yoon, if we fail; please keep the memory of me and him, somewhere in that huge server of yours, okay? Being forgotten is just too scary for us, it's what Himchan hates the most," Yongguk said, smiling sadly at the man inside the frozen chamber.

 

As it was, his owner requested for him to stay behind, for him to keep their _memories,_ instead of their well-being —safe. If that is the only way he would be able to protect them, if it will help ease his owner's emotional stress, if it will make them happy to be remembered as Yongguk and Himchan; a human pair who were opposites, moody, honest orphans and caring lovers, asteroid miners whom dared to push their limits, always —then he will do it, for them.

 

 

 

Their transporter landed on the S-type Mining Town sooner than Yoon had expected. The depot station was sparsely crowded with ships, Yoon pondered that maybe because there were not many stable asteroids left to drill on as he had noticed over the years.

 

As they made their ways into the coffeehouse, Jinwoo who constantly all-smiling towards his customers, frowned as he immediately caught the _more than the usual sour look_ on Yongguk usually impassive face.

 

"Hey, what's wrong? You okay, Yongguk?" He asked, coming over to the front of the counter and pulled the flinching, introverted man to the corner of the shop, away from a few other space miners.

 

"I need a favor," Yongguk said. Jinwoo dried his wet hands on his dark blue waist apron, nodding his head easily to the much younger man than him.

 

"Sure. What is it? Where's Himchan?" The pink haired man looked around and did not spot the man's partner any where. Yongguk though was looking rather lost and unstable at the moment, Jinwoo feared the worse for the duo.

 

"Jinwoo, I'm sorry for doing this but we don't have anyone else to go to," he started to say as he took off the utility belt around his waist. Yongguk laid the belt on top of an empty table beside them, Jinwoo looking at the item with a questioning frown.

 

"What do you mean?"

 

"This... This is my repair kit for a DPS drone, take it. And.. please take care of Yoon, he's yours now."

 

"W-what? Wait, hold on-"

 

"We're heading back to Earth, Himchan and I. And Yoon can't come," Yongguk continued on saying, taking off his smartwatch next and handed it over to a dumbfounded Jinwoo. The man stared at the watch that was now in his grasp, then back up at the younger man in pure confusion.

 

"Yongguk? I don't understand."

 

"There was an accident on site, and Himchan was hurt. Badly," Yongguk explained curtly, hands starting to shake again. The memory of seeing his carefree partner almost being propelled away into outer space; almost lost to him, to never to be seen again —was still terrifyingly fresh in the man's mind. Yongguk cannot imagine just what would have happened if he did not manage to grabbed onto his partner's snapped line in time.

 

Jinwoo stared rabbit-eyed at the younger man, noticing the paling face and trembling hands that Yongguk was trying so hard to hide. He laid a comforting hold on Yongguk's shoulder, trying gently to get the younger man's attention. "Yongguk, is Himchan okay? Where is he?"

 

The man sucked in a shivering breath before he swallowed heavily, trying to calm his oncoming panic attacks. "He uh- he's- Himchan's.. stable. I,.." Yongguk paused, ears ringing and knees almost giving out as he recalled the exact moment when Himchan was hit by the large rocks again. "No, he's not. He's in a critical condition. He needs surgery so I'm taking him back."

 

"Back home? To Earth?" Yongguk nodded at the uncertain question.

 

"There's a possibility that we won't make it, Himchan and I... Even if we do, and the surgery is a success; I don't think Himchan would ever be able to walk on his own, let alone continue mining anymore."

 

Jinwoo's eyes grew bigger at Yongguk's words, listening to the man speaking the most in the years he had known the younger man. "Yongguk... I'm sorry to hear that."

 

"He might not make it. We're too far in space, we never really had a chance but I'm still going to try. Even if... I'm the one getting comatose in the end, I'm still gonna try."

 

The seriousness of the situation seemed to have finally caught up to the man as a trail of lonely tear fell from his eyes unwillingly. He wiped it away with a forced smile, trying to laugh the prospect of his and Himchan's bleak future away. "Fuck, what shitty luck, huh?" He choked out the words in a rueful laugh, surprising them both with his cussing.

 

Jinwoo frowned at the man's obviously crumbling state and pulled the younger man into a sudden hug. The man was taller but Jinwoo shushed him as if he was a tiny, scared young boy. Yongguk blinked his startled tears away as Jinwoo ran his hand up and down the younger's trembling back soothingly. "It's okay. It'll be okay, don't worry. You'll make it, Himchan will make it too. He's strong and you'll be with him always, right? It'll be okay," Jinwoo uttered kindly, trying to console the younger man the only way he knew how.

 

Yongguk knew that there was no certainty in Jinwoo's words. The kind man simply needed to utter empty promises, unfounded hopes and useless positivity for Yongguk's sanity. And it was exactly what he needed to hear; it was the right thing to say at exactly the right time.

 

"You're leaving Yoon, for good?" Jinwoo asked, hugging the taller man still but eyes straying to the drone hovering idly behind his owner. Yongguk nodded, Jinwoo felt the movement against his shoulder and sighed worriedly. "Are you sure? I- I can't even take care of myself, let alone another... living thing? What if I'm not good enough? You guys love him, right?"

 

Yongguk reluctantly lets go of the shorter man, realizing that _that_ could be the last time he would ever feel human contact. He tilted his head around to look at the drone, memorizing the look of the little machine fondly. "Yeah, we do. Himchan more so. And that's why I'm doing this,.." Yongguk said as he took the smartwatch from Jinwoo's hold and keyed in a few instructions. He pressed the black surface of the watch's screen on Jinwoo's thumb for a print and the man's name was added instantly as Yoon's owner, alongside Yongguk and Himchan.

 

The man offered the watch back to Jinwoo, and this time, the pink-haired man received it with a clear gaze. "It's better that he's here, looking after someone than getting terminated forever back home. I can't do that to the little guy," Yongguk confessed, smiling down at the floor; embarrassed that he cared so much for a machine, but would also not hide the fact that he cared so much for a machine that had been like a family to them.

 

The drone's new owner nodded his head; an equally solemn, comforting smile graced his handsome face, eyes gentle and understanding. "Okay, alright Yongguk. I'll take care of him. Don't worry," Jinwoo said. "Good luck, on getting back home," the older man said, gaze turning sad and longing at the word _'home.'_

 

The man bit his lip and nodded heavily. He released a shaky breath and turned around, seeing the drone hovering behind him. "Yoon, take care of yourself," Yongguk said with a wet grin. The drone turned his propellers off and landed on Yongguk's opened palms; his system was somehow too heavy, too hard for him to continue computing anything. He played the happy jingle from the entrance door to lighten up his owner's sorrowful mood.

 

The man lets out a quiet laugh and grinned his gummy smile down at the drone; "Thanks buddy, for always taking care of us." And he was placed onto Jinwoo's waiting hands as he watched his owner walked out of the coffeehouse entrance, never to be heard from again.

 

 

2)

 

As if each atom of his entire being screamed to be set free; Seungyoon was violently jolted awake in his seat with a start. His body spasmed in place, eyes moving rapidly without his consent, voice stuck in his throat and brain a jumbled mess of _too much_ information, _too many_ unknowns, an abundant amount of incomprehensible _Knowledge_ —all being forced into his mainframe at once.

 

He had traveled inside eternity, swimming in substance and science too extreme, too bizarre, too vast to comprehend —and _too soon_ slipping away from his conscious circuit boards, shattering itself into thousands of tiny pieces in his brain's act of self-preservation; for him to keep his _sanity._ Because he knew that no being, no matter in whatever shape, color or form; should be exposed to the secrets of the universe like he just did. No being would willingly choose to shoulder the suffocating knowledge if they had been given a chance to peak at it. No one should, no one _could_ —Seungyoon wondered if the human brain could even withstand the unimaginable amount of input without going insane.

 

And he wondered, after being thrown into the thread of time; if he really did it, if the chronometer managed to work, or if it was all just a dream? —The broken mug? The pool of blood? The acrid tang of iron and bitter aroma of caffeine in the air? ...Jinwoo's frozen stare?

 

Seungyoon would not put it past him for his humanoid body and quantum bits computation to go haywire and make stuff up after the thrill and excitation of finally meeting the man, finally meeting Jinwoo; his old owner, again, for the first time in _decades._

 

Leaning still in his seat, Seungyoon systematically scanned his surroundings with his now monocular field of vision. He ran over his system to check why all of his high and low cores were on overdrive inside him. His system was definitely jolted by an incredible amount of voltage for it to be in a shocked state. If he could breathe; he would be wheezing, gasping for breath, asphyxiated.

 

Seungyoon raised one shaking hand and waited tensely for the spasms in his humanoid body to gradually cease. After managing to stabilize most of his processors, he closed his eyes and did a thorough check of his entire frame; everything seemed to behave normally. And with that one worry out of his mind, he finally took note of the familiar area in front of him, looking at the place through his cockpit window —the rundown depot, a lonely head office, an empty refueling station, a closed down motel and a double-storey coffeehouse.

 

It was the same as before; lifeless, abandoned, no more the busy mining town with many ships and numerous independent miners looking for wealth on dangerous floating rocks, in outer space. Looking at the place, he felt a sense of familiarity —humans though, would call it _nostalgic._

 

As he powered down his transporter and came out from it, Seungyoon wondered if it was déjà vu that he was experiencing for the first time, as he looked up at the cafe, saw the same exact light bulb of the letter R blew out at the cafe's neon signage, ruined by a stray drone that had flown in zig-zag motion, before crashing at the sign.

 

The unfamiliar drone flickered pitifully a few times, dim sparks sputtering out before shutting off and fell down on the pavement in broken cracks. The cafe's neon signage lost one glowing letter to its name in the dark cosmic background.

 

He had witnessed the scene before.

 

He saw the exact same thing happening _yesterday._ The exact same drone crashing at the signage in the exact motion. But as he pulled up the atomic space timezone bar in his head, the day that he thought was _yesterday;_ was actually today. He was reliving it.

 

He did it.

 

Seungyoon _did it._ The chronometer did it.

 

He had traveled back through time.

 

If he were human, he would have shouted his victory in a whooping yell. He would have jumped in excitement, he would run around in glee, do a backflip or something extravagant to celebrate his and his creator's success. Their invention, their _chronometer_ had worked.

 

And Seungyoon would have swallowed his own saliva from his building anticipation and flustered anxiousness as he forced himself to go through each familiar motion like he did yesterday, or _today;_ right foot first, walk towards the entrance, pick up the old fallen drone, avoid the sudden opened door as a lonely traveler exited the premise in their bodysuit, step in to the cafe next, recalling fondly the merry jingle of the automated door and watch as that _one human_ with eyes so bright and face so delicate, smiled up at him.

 

"Oh, hi. Welcome to The Stray!"

 

The familiar voice greeted him, almost knocking Seungyoon off his feet with how _glad_ he was to be able to hear that voice again, to stand there, to see him alive and breathing, to be on the receiving end of the man's attention once again. It was a miracle; the sound of his voice, the calming presence he invokes in people, the way he tilted his head in polite curiosity at Seungyoon —face as bright as the daylight's star and eyes gazing in interest.

 

"Haven’t seen your kind around for decades. A droid, right? First time here?"

 

_No._

 

"Yes. I believe this is yours? It fell outside," Seungyoon said as he took a steadying step forward, trying to block out memories of a bloodied floor and littered bodies on the cafe's tiles. He handed over the busted drone with the shop's logo imprinted on its mechanical body to the man behind the counter.

 

"Ah, he's out making trouble again. Thank you for picking him up. He's a little wonky. I actually need to update his software but haven't got the time to do it yet."

 

Seungyoon nodded in return at the man's explanations, watching him laying the camera drone on top of a small cabinet, wrapping it lightly in a clean kitchen towel as if to protect it from further harm. It was an older generation drone, running on a dying OS, not even as intelligent or as groundbreaking as the famous DPS unit. And yet the man was handling it so very gently, as something precious —like tucking in a small exhausted kitten that was down with flu.

 

He almost chuckled at the man's gentle care of the drone, on something without a pumping heart, inanimate; _a machine._ And felt a pang of longing inside his circuit that he knew could not be real because humanoids do not have the capability to feel.

 

"Why the long face?" The lilting voice inquired softly. Seungyoon blinked, he did not even notice how close he had come to stand in front of the man over the counter, staring at the man in earnest, in _longing._ The droid shook his head slowly at the question, taking a seat on a high stool. The pink-haired man leaned forward with a tiny grin, "Cheer up, yeah? Does your kind drink any beverages? Will it damage anything? 'Cause I make a pretty delicious _con leche_ if you'd like?"

 

Seungyoon unknowingly did the same thing he did before when the man offered him the same drink _'yesterday';_ he raised a curious eyebrow at the man because he knew that the drink the man planned to serve would usually be extra sweet, con leche being the sweetest.

 

***

 

 

At the beginning, their relationship was awkward and unnecessarily cautious to a worrying degree. While getting to know each other, Yoon could not help but noticed how taking care of Jinwoo was a lot easier than of that Yongguk and Himchan. The most he had to do was to make sure 1) the kitchen was safe, 2) the carbenium reactor; a catalyst planted in the asteroid's core to imitate Earth's gravity was running smoothly, 3) their various patrons were not dangerous people, 4) the geodesic barrier dome was intact and 5) Jinwoo's health was satisfactory.

 

He did not interact with Jinwoo unless it was to ask questions, and Jinwoo did not seek him out —he only did once or twice, when Yoon was out of his sight for too long and the man had gotten worried for the drone.

 

Jinwoo was _wary_ of him, frequented by the irrational fear that Yoon would attack the pink-haired man or anyone else; like the unit who protected his owner from getting stabbed in the dark alleyway, by going auto-destruct one day.

 

But that news was old, on-air so long ago, years back maybe. It was even worse to note that it was reported in a way that was unfair towards his fellow units side. Yoon did not want for Jinwoo to be afraid of him, it will be hard for him to do his job as a Dedicated Personal Security drone —offering help and taking care of his owner's well-being was what he was programmed to do. For them to be _scared_ of him, not trusting him was unheard of.

 

"See you around," Jinwoo greeted a miner who was in a hurry to leave, not even looking back as they stepped out of the place. His new owner regarded the half drank coffee and barely touched food left by the customer on the island counter with a small pout, feeling down all by himself. Yoon was just hovering around the shop, not having anything else to do when he saw the dispirited look and flew nearer to the man.

 

_.What's wrong?._

 

Jinwoo was startled out of his reverie as he felt the tiny vibration on his wrist; from his smartwatch. The man was still unused to the notification buzz whenever Yoon sent him messages. "Oh, it's nothing. Just, nah, it's all right. You can't possibly help me with this problem."

 

_.What problem?._

 

"Nothing, it's fine. I'll figure it out on my own," Jinwoo said and gathered the dishes, bringing them to the back. Yoon followed closely from behind, scanning the dishwasher in one quick swipe for any malfunction as Jinwoo loaded the dish in.

 

_.Tell me anyway. I want to help._

 

Jinwoo smiled to himself as he pressed the _On_ button; "You're pretty stubborn for a drone."

 

_.I learned that humans are confusing creatures; they tend to keep uncritical information a secret. It's needless._

 

"Really? Like what?"

 

_.Your age, for example. People often lie, preferring to introduce themselves as someone younger._

 

A light giggle came from his new owner; Jinwoo grabbed a wet cloth in passing as he exited the kitchen and proceed to wipe down the counter. "I can relate, I'm old," he replied conversationally.

 

_.You're looking more than satisfactory for your current age._

 

"Oh? Thanks, I guess," Jinwoo said and leaned against the counter after he was done, staring ahead at the entrance door with nothing to do. There were not many patrons that day, the few that was around were simply lounging around, taking quick rests before going back to their mining rocks.

 

_.You're welcome._

 

Yoon hovered closer and landed on the countertops' flat surface, next to the man, powering his propellers off. The drone noticed how Jinwoo had inched a bit away from him and made not to comment on it. _Trust_ is something that needs to be built, not forced. So he started with trying to make the human to _not_ be guarded around him.

 

_.Is there really something troubling you? Won't you tell me? Your worries?._

 

It was adorable how the drone was worried about him, Jinwoo thought. It was a new feeling; since he did not have anyone he was close with there. Maybe he ought to give the little guy a chance, he pondered lightly.

 

Jinwoo made a pouty face at the smartwatch as he reads the message. And Yoon thought that no man, had the right to be that adorable when being moody.

 

"My skills are lacking," the man said as a start. "I might be slow at picking up things but I'm not dumb, I can see that my foods and drinks are _barely_ palatable. But I can't seem to improve too. I started doing everything all by myself since I was 12. And I can barely remember what food tastes like back home. Like, I've just been winging it from the start and I don't know. It just sucks, you know? Not seeing them happy with the service," Jinwoo confessed, folding the rag neatly over and over while explaining himself, as to keep his hands busy.

 

_.Do you want to improve your culinary skills? I can help._

 

The man tilted his head in confusion at the drone beside him on the counter, he worried his bottom lip before asking in a cautious tone; "How? I'm not trying to be insensitive, no offense, but you can't _taste_ food. You can't even eat, Yoon."

 

_.I can scan the result of your cooking, I can calculate the measurements for a balanced meal, I can instruct you on how to do it. My Cloud server should have enough data about food preparation, or if we're lucky, even on how to make those coffees you like._

 

Jinwoo's eyes sparkled with interest at the mention of coffee. Yoon wondered if the man might be not just a coffee enthusiast, but maybe a coffee addict too. He rarely drinks anything other than those coffees he grinds himself.

 

"For real? You'll teach me?" The man asked with a beaming smile, leaning down and resting his head on the counter. His beautiful face was so close to Yoon, it surprised him at how perfect the human was.

 

_.Yes. I've seen latte art before. Do you want to try it?._

 

"I don't know what that is but yeah, I'd love to try it," Jinwoo grinned. "Teach me, Yoon."

 

_.Okay._

 

The fryer, ovens and frozen foods were in fact; not hard at all to make them palatable after they learned the proper temperature for it, the correct boiling heat, and simple seasoning preparations. Jinwoo had only needed to follow the numbers Yoon had told him for each kitchen appliances settings and the food came out great. Their patrons seemed even more energetic after every meal, always leaving their plates empty (sometimes even little tips that Jinwoo was too happy to receive for the first time).

 

The coffee drinks took far longer to master. There were more steps, more techniques, more constancy needed for each drink. It was true what they say; practice makes perfect. And Jinwoo practices a lot when he was alone, drinking his own beverages and face gradually turned from unsatisfied to surprised pleasantness as he improved over time.

 

With his more skillful fingers and cheerful disposition, he would playfully swipe some foam on Yoon's visor with a twinkling laughter, apologizing after Yoon complained of not being able to see anything through his camera. Yoon was glad for their growing closeness.

 

"They say my con leche is too sweet," Jinwoo made an affronted face, but there was no mistaking the twinkle in his eyes as he wiped Yoon's lenses with his sleeve.

 

_.Is it?._

 

"I don't know. Maybe? It tastes just fine to me. I like it like this," he confessed, releasing the drone to hover before him.

 

_.Do it the way you like it then, it's perfect just like that._

 

The smile he gave Yoon was no longer guarded or polite. It glows, and Yoon embarrassingly lets out the happy jingle he saved when he saw it on Jinwoo's face sometimes.

 

***

 

 

"So, how about it?" Jinwoo's voiced pulled him back from his reminiscing. "With a tulip art on top? That'll put a smile on anyone's face, yeah?" He tried again, smile growing bigger at Seungyoon's indulging look.

 

"Sure. This body can consume liquid, and I'd like that a lot, thank you," Seungyoon replied and the eyes that stared back at him in concealed wonderment were vivid blue and as brilliant as the countless stars and supernovas he saw in space. Maybe even more.

 

Seungyoon was further caught in muted shock as he learned that those eyes that he missed so much stayed deep azure, pure and marble-like —even when lifeless. It was the second time Seungyoon had witnessed the life being diminished from Jinwoo's eyes. It was a second time too many.

 

 He did not know what he had done wrong this time. It was late in the time cycle when he had failed to protect the man from getting shot _, again._ How had he failed to catch the mug he had finished drinking from, from crashing to the floor when Jinwoo knocked it over after being shot? How was it that he seemed to be even more useless in an able-bodied form with working limbs and muscles, instead of when he was just a flying, hovering drone?

 

The scene was familiar again. He looked up at the other bodies on the floor and the hateful coffeehouse owner crawling towards the counter, drenched in his own pathetic blood —again. Nothing changed.

 

Seungyoon found himself _still_ kneeling on the same floor, in a pool of Jinwoo's blood. Jinwoo's dead eyes _still_ stared emptily back at him, Seungyoon was too late to save him again. _Nothing changed._

 

The outcome did not change even after he had turned back time, but it did not matter. The droid laid the man in his arms down on the floor, bringing his fingers to gently glide against Jinwoo's eyes, drawing the soft, cold lids to close.

 

He pulled out his chronometer.

 

But what was he trying to accomplish this time? He had proven that the device worked. He does not need to press the button again. He could simply go back and tell his creator that they did it, their invention worked on the asteroid ground as they had theorized. But if he stopped here then Jinwoo will not be with him anymore. There will be no Jinwoo in his life. And he would do anything to avoid having that in his future.

 

So he will press the button, even when it was painful, reliving the past; meeting Jinwoo's curious gaze again, missing his voice again, drowning in his presence again, watching him die _, again_ —he will do it. He has to try and save Jinwoo, again. And again, until he succeeds.

 

_.click._

 

3)

 

The droid had always wondered how Jinwoo came to own such pleasantly pink hair. His skin was also translucent pale, his eyes crystal clear blue, his serene-like face was aesthetically pleasing in both looks and measurements. His fingers were long, he was taller than people normally were. He was kind, strong, and independent. The man owned an amusing quirk of talking; words and hums spoken between pauses as his thoughts try to catch up with his mouth.

 

And his smile was the same since the last time Seungyoon saw them. A perfection of his own, an upward curve that was so very incredible. Seungyoon vouched that he was not playing favorites when he selected Jinwoo as the ideal person he had ever laid his eyes on. He could not believe that such a miracle exists but was tucked so far away from appreciative eyes. So far away in deep space, on a lonely floating rock, on a forgotten mining town.

 

It was a shame that a person whose beauty was probably made to not fade from anyone's minds were given a fate so lonesome, an ending so somber, a death so alone. And Seungyoon wishes to change that.

 

After trying and failing to save Jinwoo from being shot by the thugs, after pressing the button on his chronometer _three more times,_ after watching Jinwoo's lifeless body hitting the ground three more times —Seungyoon learned that the sequence of his actions, the choices he made, the words he spoke that day would result in different outcomes to Jinwoo's fate.

 

It was painful, but he will try and learn the ways to keep Jinwoo alive. He was confident that his quantum processors could handle the constant travel and forced information everytime the clock turns, but he was not so sure if his core could handle any more devastating episodes —even when his core was made out of palladium and electromagnet, the pain he felt in it was similar to what humans would call a _heartbreak._

 

_.click._

 

7)

 

He started to drink just a simple latte instead of a con leche with a tulip art on top. And his day changed a little when Jinwoo came up to him and pointed him to the corner of the counter where there was a few slots of chargers available.

 

"If you need to use it," the man said, smiling and walking away. Seungyoon's body was running low on power, true, but he could still last for two days at most. But he did not want for Jinwoo to feel as if he had rejected his kind offer, so Seungyoon plugged the cafe's charger to his cartridge core at the left side of his chest, underneath his shirt, charging himself anyway.

 

That day, Jinwoo's death came early. He was at the back, in the shop's kitchen when a short-circuit happened. The blast was from a power-trip of some sort, the sudden surge of electricity jolted Seungyoon first before he managed to tear away the plug and run to the kitchen where he saw Jinwoo entered just a few minutes ago, frightened for the man's safety.

 

He leaped over the counter, but before his legs could even touch the floor, he was blown back by the explosion from inside the kitchen, his body crashed against the solid wall far at the entrance door. Glass shattered, ears ringing, fire enveloping the whole shop, two lonely patrons incinerated at their tables. 'Jinwoo too probably', Seungyoon thought in grief.

 

He lay on the ashen floor, in the rapidly growing flame as the oxygen in the dome started to thin. His humanoid body was badly burned, his nerves and muscles jammed, limbs twitching and sparks flying from broken circuits. It was not painful but it was an agony to think of how painful death by fire could be.

 

While his microchips slowly melted and his skin burned away in a bright green glow, Seungyoon willed his broken hand to grasp the chronometer, it took great concentration to force his busted limbs to move, it was difficult but he finally managed to press the button down, restarting the day again.

 

_.click._

 

17)

 

Even though he did not wish to be the cause of Jinwoo's dejection, he really had to decline the man's offer of using the cafe's built-in charger. He learned that the sudden surge of high voltage that had caused the explosion was from his quantum processors spiking up the place's electricity. His humanoid body was more frightening than he had given it credit.

 

"Is there anything else you need?" Jinwoo asked him with a small smile after he had finished serving a mug of huge cappuccino to an exhausted intergalactic delivery boy sitting three seats down from him. Seungyoon hoped the boy would not end up being burnt to crisp this time around.

 

He shook his head as a sign of _No,_ thanking the man belatedly for asking. He drank his espresso shot in one big gulp, he cannot taste the bitterness but his body could calculate its contents; and the result said that the drink was finely made. He told an expectant, grinning Jinwoo just that.

 

"Thank you, I'm not so fond of it but it's my boss' favorite. Gotta learn to please him, you know?" Jinwoo said with a bitter smile.

 

Flashes of a huge man, beady eyes, angry frown, loud voice and body made mostly of bionic parts came across Seungyoon's mind. He hated the man for the ways he was treating Jinwoo. He wished he could erase the man from existence.

 

Jinwoo's soft voice brought him back; "If you don't mind me asking, what is your name?" The man had rounded the counter and came to seat beside Seungyoon, eager for a partner to talk with. He had been dying for a company for so long. The asteroid received sparse visitors now with no more rocks to mine. The shop had turned into a quick pit-stop for tired travelers in deep space instead.

 

"My name?" He asked cautiously. Jinwoo nodded, eagerly waiting for an answer. The human hoped his enthusiasm would not scare the droid away. And the droid instead, felt sorry for the man, for noticing how Jinwoo had been denied steady human interactions, living so far away in intercosmic space. "...Seungyoon, I'm Seungyoon," he introduced himself cautiously.

 

The man nodded. "I'm Jinwoo," he said back, feeling elated after so many months deprived of a normal conversation. He was even surprised that the droid seemed capable of basic intercommunication and reciprocal actions. Jinwoo probed further, wanting to see just how advanced the droid was.

 

"So, what business do you have here? Coming so far into this side of the solar system?" Jinwoo asked with a little quirk of his lips. He purposely worded his question in a longer sentence because a simple _Why are you here?_ was not challenging enough for an advanced AI.

 

"I'm here to collect samples," the droid replied easily. "This asteroid contained the most concentrated minerals, right? Gold and platinum," he continued before Jinwoo could ask _What sample?_

 

"Are you a miner?" The man straightened up, blinking his doe-like eyes in surprise. The droid smiled wistfully at the man, for reasons only he seemed to know. He then shook his head gently.

 

"No, I'm just an apprentice. I'm doing research for my professor, on theory of relativity and time travel," he replied.

 

"Time travel?" Jinwoo could not stop the gleeful snort that escaped him. He did not mean to be rude, but those words sounded unrealistic to him. "We're not in some science-fiction novel. Is that even possible?" He questioned lightheartedly.

 

"It's possible.," the droid replied confidently. "You shouldn't be surprised by it. Humankind had achieved a lot... Just look at me for example; I was something the scientists wouldn't even hope to dream of existing so competently, but here I am," Seungyoon gestured to himself, and tapped on his temple twice to indicate his very stable processors and computing power. "So, I believe that time travel, paradoxes, and wormholes are not at all impossible," the droid said.

 

Jinwoo hummed in reply, rotating his seat from left to right in half circles. The squeak of the high stool was loud between their sudden delay of conversation; Seungyoon waiting for a reply and Jinwoo inspecting the droid intensely. "You're.. different from the rest of the droids I've met," Jinwoo said, catching Seungyoon off-guard with the sudden change of topic.

 

"What do you mean?"

 

"I- You know, the ones I've met were.." Jinwoo paused his movements and leaned forward a bit, cupping his mouth and scanning left and right as if the only two other tired, sleep-deprived patrons a few tables down could hear their conversation. "The droids were _'personal escorts';_ the Companion-bots," the man whispered dramatically. Seungyoon wondered if the theatrics were necessary for Jinwoo, if the man probably thought that the word Companion-bot was a taboo.

 

"Companion-bot." Seungyoon did not even utter it loudly but Jinwoo went and covered the droid's mouth as if he had just cussed in a church, the man wore a scandalized look.

 

"Yes! Companion-bots," the man shushed the droid, even though he was the one who said it that time. "Those droids were very pretty. Their owners paid a lot of money to make them look certain ways, I heard. But they weren't smart, can't even hold a decent conversation about weathers or kittens."

 

Seungyoon wanted to ask why would Jinwoo wanted to talk about weathers went he was living underneath a skyless rock, and when did he even had a conversation about kittens with these so-called sex-droids for him to know of their limitations?

 

"Oh and I've met the smart ones too. They weren't very _human-like._ Some of them fly around, some rolled around on their little wheels, and some are just tablets. They didn't look like you, and if they were a droid, they were more blocky and robot-ish. Not humanlike," Jinwoo explained, eyeing Seungyoon with a hint of suspicion in his eyes. The droid chuckled at the man's doubtful gaze.

 

"Well, to be fair, this is a Companion-bot body," Seungyoon stated and gestured to himself again. Jinwoo gasped loudly at that. "But I own an advanced AI operating systems, like those 'blocky robots' you've met. I'm a combination of both," the droid explained not without a hint of pride in his voice. He was one of a kind, his creator had told him so.

 

"You must be super expensive then!" Jinwoo exclaimed, hands still covering his mouth in shock. He would never have guessed someone would spend such a huge amount of money building a smart sex-droid. It seemed like a waste to do so no matter how sexy the result was, looking at Seungyoon as a finished product.

 

The droid made a cheerless face at Jinwoo's exclamation; "I'm not sure about that. I think I'm the only one built this way. If my creator were to sell me, maybe he could fetch a hefty amount of money from it."

 

The man noticed the downhearted look on the droid’s face and immediately grabs a hold of Seungyoon's surprisingly warm hand. "Oh no, no no don't. I didn't mean- I'm sure that won't happen. Your creator, your owner? I guess? Is a smart person, right?" Jinwoo inquired, tilting his head to see the droid's sad eyes better.

 

Seungyoon nodded.

 

"He took care of you, gave you education, assigned to you important tasks, like this mission you're doing for example. I think he's a good owner. He wouldn't want to sell you," Jinwoo said, reminding Seungyoon of the time when the man had comforted Yongguk a few decades ago with kind words. Jinwoo's innocence was still apparent in his personality, Seungyoon was glad for it.

 

"He is," Seungyoon agreed readily. "He's very kind, with an inquisitive and intelligent mind," he said with a sincere smile, gazing at the man before him. His face showed that he appreciates the man very much, and Jinwoo wondered why. "Thank you, for believing that my creator is a good man, even when you don't know him. It shows your tenderness, it shows your strength; and they're beautiful to experience."

 

Jinwoo would not notice how his cheeks were trying very hard to appear similar to the hues of his hair, but he felt them heating up nonetheless. He stammered a small thank you, questioning himself —why was he behaving like a schoolgirl with a crush? People had praised him for his looks quite often. But that was just it; they were all superficial flatteries while Seungyoon words carried unquestionable honesty and kindness in them. It burned him up more than any lecherous cat-calls could ever do.

 

The man looked down and saw their hands, still in each others' holds. He almost squeaked in surprise at what he saw, and so as to not lose his cool, Jinwoo faked a calm laughter that sounded way too excited even to himself and pulled his hand back. He stood up and immediately went to the end of the shop, rounding the corner and out of sight while calling back to Seungyoon to wait for him.

 

The droid waited, and while he did that, he recalled back the blush on Jinwoo's face, his stuttered words and bashful looks directed at Seungyoon. It was unreal. Jinwoo was attracted to him, to a droid, to a stranger.

 

Was it his looks? Was it his personality? Was it because Jinwoo was accustomed to sex-droids? Seungyoon prayed that Jinwoo was attracted to his intellect instead.

 

"Here," the man came back and took his previous seat, before handing over a packet of Banna Coffee Grinds to the droid. Seungyoon held the packet, examining the product content and the packaging design.

 

"Thank you very much, but what's the occasion?" Seungyoon asked as he watched Jinwoo wrote something on a piece of a square paper. He reached over the counter for a tape at the cash machine and pasted the note on the coffee bag.

 

_Thank you for creating Seungyoon and taking care of him. He's wonderful._

_\- Jinwoo._

 

"Please pass this gift to your creator for me," Jinwoo said, gifting his last, precious coffee grind to the droid. It was a bummer but he could always buy more if _, when_ he saved enough.

 

Seungyoon nodded, tracing his written name on the piece of unassuming paper. Jinwoo would not remember it but Seungyoon had been through that moment three times with his chronometer. At first, Jinwoo had gotten his name wrong but it turned correct at the fourth time; from Sunggyun, to Suhyeun, to Seunghyun, and finally Seungyoon. It was simply him being selfish when he pressed the button after reading each note. Because if they were to survive the day, he did not want to return home with Jinwoo and a precious, misspelled note.

 

"Do you need anything else? For when you're going back?" Jinwoo asked after a comfortable silence went by them. He brushed an imaginary dust on his waist apron, trying to pretend like he would not be sad when the droid decided to leave. Everyone leaves in the end, and he will still be there, alone.

 

_Come with me,_ was what Seungyoon had wanted to say. "No, just the results of my experiment would suffice," was what Seungyoon had uttered instead.

 

Jinwoo nodded, a low-spirited smile came to his face; "And what's the result?"

 

Seungyoon looked away as he answered; "Time-traveling is possible. All you need is two, aggressively vibrating atoms, and a lot of gold and platinum."

 

"So, your device will only work here?" Jinwoo asked a little too fervently, triggered by a passing thought that maybe Seungyoon would stay longer.

 

"Yes. It's a flaw since there is no place elsewhere with such high concentrated amount of minerals other than the asteroid belt," the droid confirmed. Jinwoo pondered at the still countless remaining rocks floating in the belt, at the _never will be dig_ minerals inside each asteroid. Just how many more valuable resources they would be missing? He wondered just how powerful the chronometer is.

 

"Seungyoon, can I ask you something?" The pink-haired man started to say, voice a little unsure.

 

"What is it?"

 

Jinwoo brushed some invisible dust away from his apron again, buying himself some time to gather his courage, biting his lip in worry. It took him awhile, but he finally looked up at Seungyoon’s curious stare and asked; “How far back... can the device go?”

 

The droid ran precisely 285 reasons and possibilities of why Jinwoo would be asking him that question, but he chose to ask the man back instead; “Why are you asking, Jinwoo?”

 

“Just, curious,..” Jinwoo replied, waving his hand randomly in the air. He let out a nervous laughter, before he seemed to catch himself behaving strangely. Jinwoo swallowed, he started to spoke softly. “I have a drone once... long ago. I miss him. He's gone because of me and even if I try to replace him, I can't. He's just,.. he’s _special.”_

 

If Seungyoon owns a heart, it would have stopped beating. He cannot believe it, that Jinwoo still remembers him; _him_ that was a DPS drone _. Him_ that was called Yoon. It had been decades ago and he did not think that he could even occupy an ounce of memory in the man’s thoughts. He was elated; he felt his circuits singing into overdrive.

 

“If you want to know, he was actually a DPS drone” Jinwoo continued, a wistful smile came to him as he reminisced the past longingly. “It was crazy. I always thought they were dangerous, but Yoon was the kindest, sweetest thing, even more so than humans.”

 

It was surreal to Seungyoon, he was tempted to tell Jinwoo everything.

 

“I miss him even until now..”

 

Seungyoon’s grip on the counter had tightened considerably as he tried his best in holding himself back; he wanted nothing more than to scoop the man up in his arms and hug him close, tell him that everything is _fine,_ that he should not feel lonely anymore, that he is Yoon. “I'm sorry. The chronometer can only reverse the time for a day's period. It can't go any further than that,” he said instead very softly, very neutrally. Seungyoon did not even know why.

 

The crushing look on Jinwoo’s face was like a heavy blow to his inner core.

 

Jinwoo wet his lips hesitantly, voice stuck in his throat. “Oh. Oh, of course. It'll be too much to hope for. I just- I'm sorry.” Jinwoo was made to stand up, to go somewhere where he could cry his heart out. It was silly of him to hope for something as impossible as bringing his one, most cherished friend back. But before he could take another step away, Seungyoon had impulsively grabbed his forearm and spun him back around.

 

They stood frozen for a moment, caught up in each other's gazes, and Jinwoo was confused by the pain and regret he saw in the droid’s eyes. Was it even possible for a humanoid, a machine, to feel so much?

 

“Please don’t cry,” Seungyoon begged softly, one hand holding the side of Jinwoo’s face as lightly as he could. He moved forward and laid a kiss on the man’s lips.

 

Jinwoo’s startled gasp was swallowed by the droid, he was surprised but he also could not stop the needful feeling in himself, of wanting to be held so very gently. The kiss was slow and soon deepened, tongues sliding purposefully against each other amidst Jinwoo’s soft sounds as they shared tastes, breaths, scents. Seungyoon was surprised to be swimming in everything that was Jinwoo.

 

They finally separated after a while; Jinwoo with a yearning mewl and Seungyoon with a stuttered apology. “Seungyoon?” The man murmured his question, suddenly unsure of what had just happened between them.

 

The droid drew back to look at the man directly, meeting his deep, blue eyes and felt fear running through his veins. Jinwoo probably noticed his shock, his panic. But Jinwoo was a fighter, he was a believer, he was a person with his own strong conviction who was unafraid to face any uncertainties before him. Jinwoo was stronger than Seungyoon could ever hope to be.

 

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I-“

 

“No. No, don’t say that. Seungyoon-“

 

But the droid was already out the door, running for his transporter. He felt like he should apologize to the man for leaving him, knowing how Jinwoo will be dead soon, and facing it alone. But Seungyoon was afraid because he feared that he was falling in love.

_.click._

 

183)

 

An Americano from the man gave him the opportunity to learn about his personality. Jinwoo would indulge him with the sweetest stories from his faint childhood memories. He would tell him of the customers he hates, of the words he was not fond of, of the different styles of spacesuits he had seen.

 

A Macchiato would turn Jinwoo into a charming man; asking Seungyoon of his aspiration, of his dreams, of what he could feel or what he could hear. If he had ever kissed anyone (Yes), if he could fall in love (Yes), and if he had a type, then what would that person be like? (Like you.)

 

A Frappe made them bold. They exchange yearning stares, lingering touches, and shared stolen kisses. Seungyoon ordered that drink the most. And against his better judgment, he started telling Jinwoo everything. He wished to take Jinwoo away, to save him, to have him, to keep him. He was in love, and he wanted to share everything that he was with the man. He wants Jinwoo to know, that he is Yoon. _His Yoon._ He had come back, for him.

 

"Yoon?" Jinwoo whispered his name finally, voice so quiet that Seungyoon could have missed it if he were not already looking at the man's face.

 

Jinwoo's fingers traced the surface of Seungyoon's synthetic palm, trailing upwards and resting lightly on his sturdy wrist, searching for a pulse and finding none. Jinwoo looked up quizzically at the droid, a hint of doubt marring his face.

 

Seungyoon smiled softly in return, understanding the confusion written there. "Don't make that face," he said lightly, turning their palms over to lace their fingers together quietly. "It's me, Yoon. Your drone."

 

Jinwoo's gaze was still clouded in uncertainty, had also turned glassy from unshed tears. "How?" The shaky whisper came.

 

The droid kept quiet for a while, unsure if he should explain to Jinwoo how he had come to be, unsure if his return was even welcomed. But he does want to tell Jinwoo everything; how much he kept thinking about him, how worried he was if Jinwoo was alone, how much he wanted to be a part of Jinwoo's life again, how much he missed Jinwoo.

 

"Y-Yoon?" Jinwoo called out uncertainly, bringing the droid's gaze back at him with a gentle nudge on the chin. "Seungyoon? Are you, is that what they call you now?"

 

He nodded his head; "My creator found my name in my drive, but since I'm no longer a drone, they gave me a new name; Seungyoon."

 

Jinwoo bit his bottom lip to stifle a confused whine; "How is this possible? I thought,.. I thought you were broken, forever."

 

***

 

 

First, it was the motel that closed down. The place was run by an old man with his daughter whom seldom leaves their establishment unless when they were picking up parcels or stocks at the depot station. Then the depot station lay off all of their workers, they changed their system to online payment and self-service port after the lack of customers.

 

The head office was next; the manager there had dropped by the coffeehouse and told Jinwoo that there were no longer any safe asteroids to be mine in the belt. They were moving to Saturn's ring and they hope to see Jinwoo around, to have a chance to tastes his delicious drink again in the future. Jinwoo gave them a bag of his favorite Banna coffee beans as a parting gift, thanking them for their years of patronage.

 

All of those closing downs had led Jinwoo's owner to run the belt's mining business to himself. He refused to let go of the place and saw an opportunity there. He knew that there are still a lot of valuable minerals available to be extracted. But like the officials had said, it was not safe. The owner did not care for that. He turned the mining business into an illegal one.

 

He sold the rock coordinates and mineral compounds to dealers, to black markets, to miners who were blacklisted for their unethical conducts that often endangered other companies or the environment. Jinwoo and Yoon had to handle all the dealings with all those unsavory people, doing the entire owner's bidding that was against the law.

 

The cash they earned was not wired to the establishment since it was dirty money. The owner only chipped in some measly amount for the coffeehouse's expenses, and Jinwoo tried other ways to survive, to keep the place floating —for the place was his home.

 

He ended up selling his body to whomever that came to the cafe, for a few extra cash. The new faces they met were mostly crude miners, roughened people, thugs or looters. They used Jinwoo's body harshly, they took him sometimes in a group, sometimes out in the middle of the shop; laughing and jeering, and Jinwoo braved it all with a false sense of bravado; because if he were to cower, he would only get stepped upon more.

 

When it was over and Jinwoo would clean himself up in his simplistic room on the second floor; bandaging any cuts, treating any bruises, Yoon would fly to him and try to make small conversations to lighten up his mood. But today, as he placed himself on the empty bed beside the man, he decided to probe for some different answers instead.

 

_.Does it hurt very much?._

 

Jinwoo shook his head, wet hair plastered to his forehead and neck after a shower. He smiled down at the drone; "I'm used to it. My owner had been rough from the start; it's nothing I couldn't handle."

 

_.He forced you too?._

 

The man pulled back his blanket and went to lie down underneath it, getting ready for a well-deserved rest. "Could it be called _forced?_ I belonged to him; he bought me from my family. He's free to do what he wants with me."

 

Yoon paused, he would like to argue back that any act that happened without consent is an act of force. But he had a feeling that it would take more than just _words_ to convince someone who had been living that way his whole life to see the wrongness of it all. Yoon grew to hate the owner even more for taking advantage of someone very young, who could not even defend themselves in the past, still could not —even now.

 

_.Where's your family?._

 

The drone asked as to distract his processors from devising a plan to eradicate the owner. The glow on the beeping watch made Jinwoo blinked one bleary eye opened. "Is it story time tonight?" He teased.

 

The smile was indulgent and affectionate, Yoon flew over to the head of the bed and land himself beside the man's pillow. Jinwoo's fingers came to stroke the drone's steel and plastic body habitually. It was a wasted effort; he was not designed to be caressed like a pet and he failed to feel anything from the touch, but Yoon believed it was more of an act of familiarity and calmness for Jinwoo's own sake.

 

"Let's see.. My family," Jinwoo hummed and fluffed up his pillow, making himself more comfortable beside the drone. "I can't remember much, it was so long ago. I was bought when I was 12 years old. I lived on an island in South Korea, Imjado, and my dad is a fisherman."

 

_.You've seen the ocean then?._

 

"Yeah, of course, silly," the man giggled at him. "I remember the blue, the red during sunsets, the clouds during storms. I remember my dad, my mom, the small house near the dock. We weren't very rich, really, and that year my mom was bedridden. Dad spent all our savings for mom's treatment. He was about to sell his boat too, the only source of our income but I stopped him.

 

I told him that we'll get money, so much money because I signed a contract with my owner. He was in town, said he needed people for his project and welcomed anyone who was able-bodied."

 

_.You offered yourself?._

 

"Joining a space crew or any ISS was everyone's dream, Yoonie." Jinwoo flicked playfully at one of Yoon's motionless propellers with a tiny pout.

 

_.Ouch._

 

The man laughed and took hold of the drone, he laid on his back and placed Yoon on top of his stomach as he stared at the dull ceiling, thumb caressing the edge of the camera lens. "I sold myself for that contract in a heartbeat. It was crazy but I wanted to help my mom and dad. And.. the stars, I wanted to see them up close after spending my entire life watching the sea. Maybe I got bored, so I wanted to experience the magic of being in space. But yeah, I got bounded to my owner 'cause of that, until he released me, or until I managed to pay him back for the amount he gave my dad."

 

A heavy sigh came from the pink-haired man; he hummed sadly as his finger traced random patterns on Yoon's body. "It wasn't so bad at first. I was just an errand boy for him at Mars base. But then he got a deal on an asteroid in the belt. He developt this place, the S-type Mining Town, and all the workers are his people, the people he brought from Earth, including me."

 

_.All of them? The motel owners? The head office manager?._

 

Jinwoo yawned and snuggled the drone up against his chin, hugging it lightly. "I'm surprised; you didn't check their background histories? No, not the people from the head office, they're government workers. But the depot station, the motel? Yeah."

 

The man closed his eyes, breathing in deep and heard nothing but silence and the occasional flat thumps of small rocks hitting the dome somewhere outside. Jinwoo opened his eyes slowly to the gloomy walls, the endless sea of stars that he had grown weary of watching in his room's framed window. The loud silence, the smell of nothingness —it was dreadful. He glanced down and saw the blinking light of Yoon's power source glowing on and off at intervals, as if the drone was breathing.

 

There were no messages on his smartwatch, Jinwoo wondered if Yoon had thought that he had fallen asleep. But it cannot be for the drone could tell the difference between Jinwoo's heartbeat. He wondered then too why Yoon was not out and about, hovering wherever it is that he would go to when Jinwoo would be asleep?

 

He settled with the reason that the drone was probably worried about his ordeals, about his well-being after the mob today, after he had also basically blurted out his not-so-pleasant past. Jinwoo was surprised too that he had opened up so easily, talking about it. He had gotten attached to the drone.

 

"The motel girl, she had a brother you know?" The pink-haired man started saying after a long while; uttered in a whisper, as if he was afraid of breaking the silent air around them. Yoon's camera lens rotated to watch the man's face, "He died, got his head bashed in."

 

_.That's awful._

 

The man nodded, tracing Yoon's blades in contemplation. It was amazing to him that a drone could differentiate between what is good and what is awful, and yet humans could not. "It is... Rumors said that he got into a fight, with someone, when he caught them raping his sister. Apparently, Suhyun had suffered those attacks often, she kept quiet 'cause she was afraid of repercussions,” Jinwoo said, a light shiver came over him. He pulled the blanket higher underneath his chin. “I understand her fear. And after what happened, I think that's why they kept to themselves. That family,” he whispered sadly.

 

_.Was the person caught?._

 

"No," Jinwoo bit his lip, a stray tear fell from his eye quietly, landing on the pillow. “No, the man was never caught. And I have a terrible hunch that I know who did it,” he whispered. Yoon had his suspicion too then.

 

Yoon could quite understand why it was much easier for humans to run from their problems than facing all the pain alone. Humans seemed so tough to him but they were also surprisingly breakable at times. Jinwoo's wounds were not only superficial; they were deep cuts that the man had locked away inside, hiding them from others and also himself.

 

Almost all the time, when the menacing sound of the transporter’s engine belonging to their owner was heard landing itself at the depot station, Jinwoo's face would instantly pale. He would push Yoon somewhere safe, somewhere secluded; the restroom, the closet, the server room, —anywhere, hoping for the drone to not get into any trouble.

 

"No matter what happened, no matter what you hear, don't come out. Promise me, Yoon," Jinwoo would say to him in a hurry, voice anxious and concerned. Yoon would protest for it was against his job, but refusing Jinwoo's request seemed like it would result in the man having a panic attack.

 

_.Okay._

 

He ignored the shouting, he ignored the hitting, the abuse and the painful groans that Jinwoo was trying so hard to swallow. Yoon would almost go chaotic himself. It made his circuits erratic and processors jammed, he had to power himself off in order to fight his preprogrammed tasks that would do anything he could to save Jinwoo. He was undoubtfully ready to defend Jinwoo by blowing the owner up along with himself.

 

But instead, he remembered Jinwoo’s pleading words. And so he laid on the floor, blissfully unaware of the happenings around him until Jinwoo would pick him up and turn him back on, a relieved smile adorning the man's face while holding him close. But Yoon cannot block it out, he tried. When he sees the shop's counter, he imagined Jinwoo being forced there. When he sees the coffee mug, he recalled the crashing sound of when Jinwoo tried to defend himself. When he sees the graying floor, he was reminded of Jinwoo's bruised body being left there after the abuse.

 

They were like undeleted moving pictures on his hard drive, the memories and images kept playing for years and years and years. Yoon recalled a journal from one of the units in their Cloud server, their owner died from terminal illness; they say that no matter how hard it is for you to watch it happening, the person shouldering the pain feels even worse. And he wanted to send a message to that unit, saying that; _I understand how you feel._

 

_.It's not fair. Why are you not angry? Why do you not fight back?._

 

Jinwoo shook his head, hissing in pain as he applied some disinfection cream on his split lip. "I can't. Things are just hard. Just, remember what I said; don't come out. Don't interfere, okay?"

 

Yes, it was hard having to shut himself down when bad things kept happening. It was hard when Jinwoo demanded him to stay away but the man's hands unknowingly begged him to become his anchor. How was Yoon supposed to convince himself that everything was all right when he can hear the hidden pleas in Jinwoo's lies and read the fear and doubts in the man's terrified eyes?

_.Can I help you, Jinwoo? I don’t want you to hurt anymore._

 

"Yoon, no... I only have you. Please, don't."

 

But Yoon cannot continue functioning knowing that sooner or later, he was going to regret not stepping in.

 

It was a consequence that he was ready to face. At that moment, he did not know how to explain to Jinwoo that it was the only way. He cannot explain to the man how any kinds of a solution were never so simple, and when none would work; it was all right to expect a little bit of a sacrifice. Yoon knew that it was not a fate that he should embrace but if it will bring an end to Jinwoo's suffering, then who was he; a DPS drone, made to protect their owner, was to argue? Yoon hopes that Jinwoo would understand that he was conditioned to be a certain way.

 

The next time the owner of the shop came by, Yoon waited painfully until the man was done with Jinwoo, until he was alone in the showers; bionic arms and legs left aside as he cleaned himself up. It was the owner’s most vulnerable moment and he will use it.

 

He detonated himself; and at the same time, the owner shot Yoon in his core with a hidden gun.

 

***

 

 

"My core-chip was still intact, and my storage system too. I’m sorry I wasn’t successful in protecting you. He did not even sustain any injury. I hate him."

 

A choked gasp came from Jinwoo, his hands trembling, clutching at the Seungyoon's sturdy arms for support.

 

“He threw you out, just like that. You- you tried to blow yourself up? How could you? How could you leave me?” Jinwoo yelled at him, punching him in his solid chest over and over. Seungyoon brought the man to his embrace, holding him still so that Jinwoo would not hurt himself in his anger.

 

“I’m sorry. I was desperate,” Seungyoon whispered. “Forgive me.” Jinwoo choked out a cursed at him, angry and relieved at the same time. Seungyoon grip Jinwoo tighter, trying to soothe the man's distress. "I was brought back to life by a man, a physicist professor; my creator. He bought my processors from a junk-seller. He was curious to see what would happen if he were to put the most advanced qubit core in the most stable artificial body made by mankind."

 

The droid pulled back and held onto Jinwoo’s hands. He raised their intertwined fingers up; brought them closer for Jinwoo to see the similarity, for the man to see that he was real. "I'm just in a different body, Jinwoo. But I'm still Seungyoon, I'm still your Yoon."

 

"I let him threw you out..."

 

"You didn't know. And it doesn't matter, Jinwoo. I'm back, aren't I?"

 

"You're- It's... crazy. I'm, I don't know what to say. I missed you. I... I missed people, I'm so lonely. I'm so weak, I'm sorry, Seungyoon, Yoon. I'm so sorry,"

 

"Why are you apologizing?" The sudden onslaught of tears and sobbing wrecked were too sudden, Seungyoon did not know what to do. Jinwoo just kept crying in his arm, like a floodgate being opened, the man lets out all his loneliness, all his grief, all his tiredness out. He was simply glad to finally have a kind soul back with him, to make his days on the graying, dusty rock floating in infinite space —less lonely.

 

The two other people who were in the cafe, left after awhile, getting on their transporter and off the asteroid. Seungyoon and Jinwoo were huddling on a booth beside the dusty window, silent tears left Jinwoo's eyes sometimes and Seungyoon would wipe it away with a brush of his thumb.

 

The droid wondered why destiny was so adamant in taking Jinwoo away from him as he noticed the slowly thinning oxygen level in the dome. There was a leak in the barrier, was it from one of the transporters? Was it from the carbenium reactor having a malfunction? Seungyoon was unsure, but he was positive that it was something he could not fix even if he tried.

 

"I'm sorry, for crying like this," the man on his lap, curled in his arms, hiccupped in a tired sob. Seungyoon brought him closer, feeling the shortness of breath of Jinwoo's breathing against his neck.

 

"Don't be, you're just overwhelmed. It's okay," his fingers ran soothingly across the soft pink hair, trying to calm the man down.

 

"But it's bad," Jinwoo sucked in a long breath. "It's getting harder for me to breathe. Why is it getting harder to breathe?" Jinwoo was looking at him for answers, at his eyes, at the surrounding shop —frantic. "Yoon?"

 

"The oxygen level is depleting. I don't think it's fixable. I'm sorry, Jinwoo," Seungyoon whispered, rubbing his thumb back and forth over Jinwoo's jaw.

 

"W-why?" The lost look in his blue eyes stabbed at Seungyoon's core. He could only whisper his apology instead, over and over while hugging the man closer to him. "You'll stay, won't you? Don't leave... me..." Jinwoo's fingers curled and uncurled in Seungyoon's shirt, as if trying to find a thread of life to hang on to.

 

"I won't. I'm not going anywhere," Seungyoon promised, voice heavy against Jinwoo's ear. And no matter how many times he witnessed the man's last moments, death never seemed to get easier. He held onto Jinwoo's thrashing body as the last few precious oxygen went out, burying his head into Jinwoo's hair as the sound of the man gasping for air was too harsh for him to hear. Jinwoo choked, and whined and clawed at Seungyoon's body, strong enough to bleed if he were to bled.

 

The silence of Jinwoo's stilled heart was deafening. Seungyoon laid a kiss on the man's forehead and pulled out his chronometer.

 

_.click._

 

319)

 

Seungyoon had made up his mind to simply take Jinwoo away. He pushed the cup of untouched glazed coffee aside and stood up suddenly, surprising the pink-haired man who was washing some used glasses at the sink with his sudden movement.

 

"Seungyoon?" Jinwoo was staring at him with saucer-wide eyes. "You okay?"

 

"Do you trust me?" It was a dumb question, Seungyoon knew. Jinwoo probably trusts him more than he does himself, and the doe-like eyes, looking at him with such clear innocence proved just so.

 

Jinwoo nodded, drying his hands on his waist apron before coming closer to the distressed droid. "You know I do."

 

"Did you believe me when I say that I am Yoon, your DPS drone?"

 

"I do." The answer came without even a pause.

 

"Then... would you believe me if I told you that this is not the first time I came to meet you? That I've been here before with this new body?"

 

"You have? When?" Jinwoo asked in bewilderment, and Seungyoon proceeded to tell him everything; about the chronometer, about the time travel, about his failures. Jinwoo's face that was eagerly listening to his stories gradually turned sad, but Seungyoon kept going, and going, and going.

 

"So.. I kept dying?" The man asked, now sitting on a high stool beside him. The droid nodded, keeping his head down, feeling unpleasant for telling the man of his own previous demise.

 

"I'm sorry, Yoon."

 

"Why are you apologizing? I was the one who failed to save you. You're the one who kept getting hurt," he said sorrowfully, he cannot help but be apologetic towards the man for his constant failures.

 

"I know. Maybe dying is painful but I never remember any of those times. But you do, you went through it all, you kept watching it all. And I'm sorry."

 

Out of the corner of his eyes, Seungyoon saw Jinwoo's hand slowly came to touch his; guarded, maybe a tad bit afraid, but the warm hand rested itself on top of his in the end. "What do you want to do?" Jinwoo asked softly.

 

"Come with me," he gripped onto those warm hands tightly. "Let's leave. Let's get on my transporter, I'll bring you back home. I don't know if it's this place or if it's something else but if we could just survive the day, maybe we'll be free of your death."

 

The man looked unsure, he bit his bottom lip, legs starting to shake in place. Jinwoo does not know if he was allowed to just up and go. What will his owner do after he noticed Jinwoo was missing, that he had run away? His boss owned a nasty temper; he was also much stronger than anyone with his modified, bionic body. He does not want to be hit again, to be dragged back here, bruised and broken. To have Seungyoon be in the middle of a quarrel, for the possibility of Yoon being broken in two again, tossed away like a scrap of useless metal.

 

"I don't know... What if he finds us?" Jinwoo said, pulling his hand away but Seungyoon caught it back in his grip.

 

"I'll make sure he won't. I'll protect you," the droid said. "I'm capable now, I'm no more just a helpless drone, hovering around, beeping insistently at any potential danger."

 

"You make it sound like you were so bad," Jinwoo cannot help his teasing but Seungyoon did not seem to notice, he was too concerned about their current predicament.

 

"I was pathetic back then. I was useless," Seungyoon confessed what he believed, bluntly. Jinwoo scowled at him and hit him across his upper chest, startling the droid out of his self-pity. Seungyoon blinked surprisingly at the man.

 

"No, Yoon. You were very attentive and super adorable," Jinwoo replied with a giggle, his happiness was infectious and Seungyoon smiled at him in return.

 

"Will you come with me?"

 

"Yes. Yes, Yoon. I will," Jinwoo replied, face beaming with delight. It sounded so much like the droid had just proposed to him, and Jinwoo was beyond elated. Seungyoon watched the man, saw the brilliant glow of Jinwoo's face and it hit him; Jinwoo is happy and it was because of Seungyoon.

 

Seungyoon is Jinwoo's happiness —and it was a responsibility that he was incredibly delighted to hold. Jinwoo accepted his request; with the man's apparent delight, the droid was completely prepared for Jinwoo to simply turn and run towards the transporter with an excited laugh. But instead, Jinwoo was suddenly in his face, one hand came to rest on top of Seungyoon's chest where his core lies, the other touching his jaw, fingers then sliding down the column of his neck and tugging lightly at his shirt collar.

 

Seungyoon unintentionally caught the faint scent of coffee and vanilla in the air, on Jinwoo's breath, because their mouths were only inches apart and Jinwoo's eyes were searing into his own, vibrant and yearning. Seungyoon did not press the chronometer but time seemed to come to a jarring halt because he seemed to not mind swimming in the sea of the man's azure eyes.

 

He was urged to whisper Jinwoo's name in inquiry, uncertain of the man's obvious intention towards him, but before the first vowel sounded, Jinwoo closed the remaining distance and kissed him. Seungyoon was far too stunned to do anything about it because when they kissed in the past days that did not _happened_ —it was always Seungyoon who initiated it. But today, Jinwoo's tongue pushed its way into his lips first.

 

Jinwoo could not control himself, something startling and red-hot awoke in him then —a need for Yoon, for Seungyoon, something he had not realized he held. A flood of emotions he had harbored for the drone in the past had multiplied greatly onto the droid and it ran free through the flow of blood pounding in his veins, rendering all of his thoughts obsolete in favor of receiving everything that was Seungyoon.

 

He opened his mouth wider to deepen the kiss, tasting the caffeine that he had made for the droid, the foreign taste of sweet liquid coolant on his tongue, moaning in his throat and tangling his left hand tightly in the jet black hair, keeping the droid from pulling away. But they broke apart for Jinwoo's much-needed air, the man panting heavily. Both pairs of eyes were filled with yearning, burning with aching desperation and soft fondness.

 

"Seungyoon,.." The man whispered his name, so full of adoration, a finger tracing the line of his jaw. "Yoon.." He said softly, so softly in fact that Seungyoon was sure it was only for his ears and no one else.

 

Seungyoon smiled down at the man's grinning look, "Jinwoo.."

 

They moved together again as one, and different from their pure sentiment of shared emotions; this time it was rapture and passion. Lips clashing and Jinwoo's teeth biting and Seungyoon's tongue reaching, the droid brought himself to his full height, tugging insistently on soft pink hair and dominating the kiss, bringing the yearning into Jinwoo's willing mouth and exploring there just as thoroughly as the man did him.

 

Beyond the traces of coffee and vanilla, Jinwoo tasted of old wood of the shop's counter, and dusty ice surface of the asteroid, the heat from the coffee machine and adrenaline, sweet and cloying on his tongue. Seungyoon was suddenly blindsided by the realization that he had finally had this; Jinwoo, his most precious person in his whole existence, in his arms. He would never want to taste anything but the flavor of Jinwoo's kiss ever again, never want to smell anything but the scent of vanilla and mint and caffeine and Jinwoo, never want to feel anything but the lean, smaller body pressed against his own.

 

If he could lay claim to anything, then he wanted Jinwoo. Jinwoo was his. Seungyoon pulled the man closer, earnestly, and the entire universe shrank to nothing more than the space the two of them occupied.

 

"Let's go," Seungyoon murmured.

 

"Yeah," Jinwoo breathed, tongue hot against Seungyoon's lips for a moment before he kissed the droid again, deep and intent, one final time before they both exited the shop, hand in hand, never looking back.

 

––The transporter traveled through space quietly, across billions of stars. _Thank you,_ Seungyoon said to no one in particular, in his head, probably to everything at once. He was afraid that even this would not be enough for him to save Jinwoo because maybe they were too basic in mind to understand how this thing works. Maybe time was not simply something a living thing can make sense of, can travel through one second at a time, moving forward.

 

But he needed to try anyway, it was the only thing they could do. They were leaving the cursed rock and he hoped this time, Jinwoo would be safe. He had sworn to protect the man from his abusive owner, from any unfortunate end; he vowed to do much more than that.

 

"Are we safe?" Jinwoo asked. He was standing at the side of the cockpit, watching the stars whizzed by at a speed he was unfamiliar with.

 

"I hope so. Please stay close to me until the Time is up," Seungyoon replied and he almost reached for Jinwoo, tugged by an impulse to hug him, to protect him. Jinwoo was smiling wide as he looked around the new space he was in. A transporter, it had been ages since he flew in one.

 

"Seungyoon, can I see what's at the back? Or is that too far away for me to explore? Since you told me to stay close," Jinwoo raised an eyebrow at him, voice playful. The eagerness in the man's eyes was contagious, and so Seungyoon lets him. Jinwoo clapped his hands gleefully in delight and was out of Seungyoon's sight in seconds. The droid chuckled like a human, fondly so at the man's retreating back.

 

He set course to Earth, enhanced his hearing to listen to Jinwoo's heartbeat so he could keep track of the man on the ship. It was half an hour later, when Seungyoon was focused on the journal he was reading —that it happened.

 

A muffled _-Oofh!-_ and the sound of a dull thud. Seungyoon stilled, his processors going faster as he thought of all possibilities that could have happened back there. A few minutes later, a steady set of footsteps came; Jinwoo emerged and walked into the cockpit.

 

The man stopped and frowned; "Why do you look like that?"

 

The droid stared at the man; a quick scan confirmed his fear.

 

"Seungyoon?"

 

"Jinwoo, what happened?" The droid asked. He could just scrub the footage from the security cameras in his ship for answers but he felt like he did not want to face the truth so impersonally.

 

The man blinked at him, wondering what Seungyoon was talking about before it clicked; "Oh, you mean just now? That sound I made? God, this is embarrassing," Jinwoo smiled sheepishly. "I tripped over some hose or a giant cable? I don't know. Bumped my head but it wasn't even that hard. My elbow hurts more though. People don't die from a bruised elbow, right?" He asked cheekily.

 

When Jinwoo came closer, Seungyoon lightly pulled at the man's arms, resting his forehead against Jinwoo's abdomen, holding him. Jinwoo made a worried sound; "Seungyoon? What's wrong?"

 

The droid felt the soft caress of Jinwoo's fingers between the strands of his hair. "Hey, I'm okay. I'm fine," the man said while bending down to lay an airy kiss on top of the mop head. "Seungyoon, I'm fine, right?"

 

Seungyoon closed his eyes. The spot sign in Jinwoo's brain was seared to his memory; _hemorrhage._ “Yes,” he lied. “You’re fine, Jinwoo."

 

It was the first lie. Seungyoon wished he could forever be honest and true to his most important person, but if lying would help retain the bubble of happiness they were in, then lie he would. Jinwoo was free, he was excited, Seungyoon was confident that the man was looking forward to finally be back home. He will not shatter that dream.

 

"Sit with me?" Seungyoon requested, and Jinwoo surprisingly did not go to the seat next to him but instead had settled himself sideways on top of the man's lap, arms circling the droid's neck, Seungyoon doing the same to the man's waist.

 

Not long after, in their contented silence, Jinwoo said, "I'm tired."

 

"Then go to sleep," Seungyoon told him quietly. Jinwoo rested his head against the droid's chest.

 

"Seungyoon, you really came back to me," Jinwoo said, voice soft and far away.

 

"I'm yours, aren't I?" Seungyoon whispered, rubbing Jinwoo's side. The man had fallen asleep. Seungyoon stared at the view in front of him in silence, gaze fixed at the billions of stars passing through them. Jinwoo's heartbeat had finally faded out.

 

They had one more hour until the little hand on the chronometer tick the full rotation away, until the whole cycle was complete. Seungyoon pondered if he should withhold himself this time; Jinwoo was away from that place, the man had laid blissfully unaware in his arms, the death that took Jinwoo was the most painless in all the days they had gone through.

 

Was this not a gift? Was it a gesture of condolence to them for having to keep suffering? Should he not be grateful and take it, accept the fate?

 

But Jinwoo's happiness was _him,_ and it is true the other way around too. And so, he would not settle. Not for this. Even if Time and Space would not be pleased with him, Seungyoon will never give up.

 

_.click._

 

"Seungyoon, how big is the sea now?"

 

"Bigger. But it wouldn't make much of a difference if you're on a boat in the middle of the ocean, it's still and forever will be as big as the sky since humans are just too small."

 

"I guess so. I wonder if my dad enjoys it, being out there? Somewhere so vast and empty? I wonder if they're still fighting to be alive.."

 

_.click._

 

"Do you think stepping on grass barefooted will be painful? Because I can’t seem to remember."

 

"No. It’s not soft but it’s also not coarse."

 

"The miners on Earth always boast about how beautiful their forests and lands are. You'd think they'd take better care of the planet if so."

 

_.click._

 

"The man who made you must be super smart, huh?"

 

"I believe I'm smarter though."

 

"I can't say since I've never met the guy. I'd love to meet him one day, to say thank you for bringing you back to me."

 

_.click._

 

"Seungyoon, can I kiss you? Is it... okay?"

 

"Yes. Yes, you can kiss me."

 

_.click.click._

 

"You came back... for me. You remember me?"

 

"I do."

 

"Why?"

 

" I am yours, aren't I?"

 

_.click._

 

"Hey, it's okay. Don't look like that."

 

"Don't talk; you're losing too much blood."

 

"It's okay. You said, I'll be okay tomorrow right?"

 

"Yes.. You'll be fine, tomorrow."

 

"Then everything's fine... Stay? Until I go?"

 

"I could never leave you, Jinwoo."

 

_.click.click.click._

 

"Can you feel love, Yoon?"

 

"Love and feelings, are emotional labors that are hard for machinery like me to simulate."

 

_.click._

 

"Yoon, if I say I love you, would you believe me?"

 

"Humans have a lot of empathy to go around. What you feel for me is not love."

 

"If it's not love, would I kiss you like this? Would I want you like this?"

 

"You shouldn't. I'm just a machine. I can't return what you're offering me."

 

"You love me. I can feel it in your kisses, in the way you're holding me as if I'm made out of glass. The way you're moving inside me now, ah- so careful, lo-loving."

 

"Because you deserve to be treasured, Jinwoo."

 

"Ah, I only- only want you, to treasure me. Oh, Y-Yoon, don't stop, don't go. Love me more, give me more. I love you. So much."

 

_.click._

_.click.click._

_.click.click.click._

 

"I once dreamt something."

 

"Tell me."

 

"I was standing behind a counter, just like this.

 

I think I just made the most beautiful latte art but I can't remember what it is. I looked up when the entrance door chimed, and there you were.

 

You wore something so casual. Your steps were light, and you grinned at me.

 

Behind you, the sky was so blue. It was surreal because I can’t see colors anymore. I don't remember blue. I've spent almost all my life looking at constant grayness. I knew then that it was just a dream and I woke up crying."

 

_.click._

 

1154)

 

Hope is a cruel thing. Once, Seungyoon had stumbled upon Yongguk's book about self-discovery and a sentenced wrote 'Hope is like a never-ending flame in people's heart, it can't be extinguished by mere wind or water.'

 

But to Seungyoon, Hope is not like fire, it is water instead —trapped in a dam; increasing steadily, silently, strongly, without a reason to be feared, to be noticed. Until one day, the dam breaks. And you are left to deal with the consequences.

 

Seungyoon jolted awake like any other time in his transporter, waited for the spasm to stop, for his circuits to cool down, for his processors to finally come to senses, leaving all the universe's knowledge behind. He was glad for it, for not having to carry the burden of vast knowledge but instead just the memories of Jinwoo's deaths; helping him in his self-journey to save the man, also tormenting him with images of Jinwoo's broken bones, burned body, and glassy eyes. It was awful but it was the rule of Equivalent Exchange, he kept reminding himself so. He cannot hope to learn of time travel while also keeping the one he loves the most. It was greedy of him.

 

The droid sat up slowly in his seat, stared at the dull gray, outer walls of the coffeehouse in front of him in silent contemplation, before slamming his fist down on the ship's main console —hard. He broke and jammed the device. He stood up; kicking, punching, pulling out all the wires and thrashing the entire cockpit in a fit of rage. Seungyoon screamed, he growled, he wailed and finally fell to the floor on his knees; tired, alone and desolated.

 

He was behaving very much like a human being; he was terrified of it. How did he change? When did he change, so much?

 

When did his job to protect became the need to treasure? How did his fair acknowledgment of a person's look turn more enamored towards pink hair, big eyes, and sharp jawline? How was he so convinced that when he held Jinwoo, it was _not_ simply bedding mechanics, but an act of love-making instead?

 

It was punishment.

 

He tried to bend time, he tried to rewrite fate, he tried to play God. And all he got was death after devastating deaths of the one he cared for most. The cycle can keep going on forever, and sooner or later he will be the one to break; quantum brain or no. He has to end it, but the only way to do it is to accept Jinwoo's end and move on.

 

Seungyoon refused. Hope is a cruel thing.

 

The droid salvaged the consoles and panels needed, set them back up with using the ship's secondary power supply and send a message to his creator, to the professor back home.

 

He wrote a long message, telling the wiser man everything, detailing anything he thought would be of significant; the chronometer, the gold, and platinum on the device reacted magnificently with the ones underneath the asteroid, forming a chemical and neuron reactions that sizzled and vibrates the atoms inside the watch and created a wormhole.

 

 

'Means it can't be used somewhere without that huge amount of minerals. Whoever said that time can't be bought needs to retract back their words.

 

Come home now, Seungyoon. The device works but the project is a failure. Make sure the chronometer is gone, that little thing will only bring trouble.' —The professor replied to his message, only three hours later.

 

 

Seungyoon ran his fingers against the bumps and carvings on the chronometer's body. Indeed, the little thing is troublesome. It was a bizarre invention, where when he pressed the button down, its face and ticking hands would morph into shapes beyond imagination, lost into another dimension. It was powerful and dangerous and yet he cannot let it go.

 

Not yet. He send another message to his creator, the reply came in after another quiet three hours had passed.

 

 

'A clock on the wall chimes and ticks your life away; is it alive? A burning fire breathes without lungs; is it not alive? A tree grows and when it falls silently in the forest without a cry; do you act like it wasn't alive?

 

You, out of everyone should understand more that life is not simply about breathing or heart beating. It's about growth, it's a learning curve.'

 

 

_.Am I in love?._

 

 

'Seungyoon,

 

Some people could love their religion enough to live in seclusion for their God. Some attendants dedicate their whole lives to their masters and it cannot be just out of the sense of loyalty. Some people march to war with guns blazing, others with bare hands, for the love of their people and their countries.

 

The love you meant is between lovers; and yes, I believe you are. Love is not measurable; it's not quantifiable so it's nothing for you to react so dubiously towards, especially when it was born from within yourself.

 

You are learning. You're alive.'

 

 

For the entirety of that day, Seungyoon did not step out of his transporter. He sat there, between the ruins of broken machines and flickering lights, trying to come to terms with himself. He knew what it takes to move on but he kept holding on to something invisible; _hopeful futures,_ like grasping desperately for something impossible, like air.

 

The last message from his creator came hours after the last one, but he ignored it; 'How many times have you used the chronometer?' The man had asked, but somehow Seungyoon could read the underlying worry in that question; _How many times have you forced yourself to watch him die?_

 

_.One thousand one hundred and fifty-four times._

 

The numbers struck him. Apparently, he does not know how to move on; it was harder than he imagined it to be, in letting Jinwoo go. Everything was going in ways that he had not planned, no matter how much he struggled, the events were just out of his controls. He realized that he had been willingly let himself be caught in the eye of the storm for far too long. And now, his own self-invented loop forced him to try and figure out how he should move on.

 

It should be clear to him what he needed to do. It was time for him to finally give them all away; the chronometer, the asteroid, the time travel, his newfound ability to feel, Jinwoo.

 

He could, he should, yet there was an uncomfortable feeling inside of him, a belated regret in having to leave it all —Seungyoon just wished that he did not have to feel like there was something he would be missing.

 

 

'You need to stop.' —was the last message from his creator.

 

 

Seungyoon looked up as flashes of gunshots were seen inside the coffeehouse. He could not hear the screams, the dull thuds of dead bodies hitting the ground, the last gasping breath from Jinwoo. But he could see it all happening in the back of his mind, memories playing back over and over without his consent.

 

After everything was eerily still, he could see a faint image of the coffee shop's owner faint body-heat, crawling towards the counter. The man was always reaching for something, before his death could take him. It was a self-destruct switch, for bombs planted on the biggest asteroids inside the belt.

 

It was a typical human behavior, even in death; their greed could not be quenched. He knew how the despicable man's mind works; if he can no longer have the whole belt and the luxury it brings him, to himself —then no one can have it too.

 

Seungyoon pressed the button on his chronometer simultaneously as the man pressed the switch of his detonator. And at that moment, a thought came to Seungyoon. He was alive, and so he learned that the cruelest lesson he had gained through all these ordeals was that the hardest part of an ending was having to start over again.

 

_.click._

_1155)_

 

In all the times he had failed to save Jinwoo —it was not because he was not fast enough, strong enough, or capable enough. But because it was the wrong way of approaching the inevitable.

 

He will abide by the cosmic rule, but he will try to not lose his own voice. He will learn to trust fate, but he will not be naive. And so Seungyoon finally decided to do what he should have done a long time ago.

 

He pulled the cable on the panel and slotted the end of it on his chest, on his disk drive’s main port. He booted up his hard-disk management system and started to sift through his entire life archive. His Cloud server was gone. After the DPS droid was pulled off, the company revamped themselves to producing military weapons instead. It was a similarly lucrative investment, if not more. All the drones' data and journals were trashed. And they did not simply delete it, they replaced the existing files with newer entries; like painting over a colorful canvas with a black paint, the base can no longer be seen.

 

Even though he managed to cramp all the video graphics memories of the days he had re-looped on the asteroid in his drive, he was still left with a tiny space of bytes to fill. And since he cannot fit in his entire past archive, he picked the ones he felt was the most important.

 

1) The day his power button was switched on the very first time, his camera scanning the face of his new owners curiously, both men eagerly introducing themselves to him and how happy they were to have him in their team.

 

2) The day his new droid body felt the course texture of grass beneath his feet for the very first time, a cat's soft fur between his fingers, the sunlight on his face as his creator watched him with a proud smile on his face.

 

3) The day his power source was slowly draining, his battery burnt and his camera can no longer focus on anything. As Jinwoo hold his broken drone body close to his weeping self, begging him not to turn off, telling him that no one cared for him like Yoon does. A breakable little drone, machinery, a thing that cannot feel —was loved dearly by a human.

 

He stored those precious three days into the USB. He carefully unattached it from his chest, closing back his port with sealable skin and buttoned up his shirt. He slid the USB into his pants pocket, making his way to the hangar of his transporter and pressing the button to lower the steps down and opened the door.

 

When he looked up, he saw the sign on the coffeehouse. “The Stray,” he whispered to himself. He will miss the place; the place where he had spent more than half of his existence, the place where he learned to love, the place where everything was achievable and yet nothing was possible. A place where he met Jinwoo.

 

Jinwoo who was kind, gentle, and strong. Jinwoo who took pride in his job, who smiles readily at everyone he met, who spoke only to cheer, who shares his love for caffeine with strangers. Jinwoo who was lonely, afraid, and mistreated even by Time itself. The unbelievably breathtaking Kim Jinwoo, who made a droid, fell in love.

 

Seungyoon would do anything for the man’s happiness. It is what he deserves. Seungyoon will step into the shop; he will give Jinwoo his hard disk and convinced the man to go, to not be afraid and to return home. He will wait for when the fight between the thugs and Jinwoo’s owner broke out and he will sacrifice himself for the man because he had seen too much, he had asked too much, he had learned too much and the universe cannot allow that.

 

He will pull the switch on the detonator that the owner had so eagerly yearned to press. He will end them all; the owner, the asteroid, the shop, the chronometer, himself.

 

As he took a step forward on the dusty surface of the S-type Mining Town asteroid, Seungyoon knew that it was déjà vu that he was experiencing. He looked up at the cafe, saw the same exact light bulb of the letter R blew out at the cafe's neon signage, ruined by a stray drone that had flown in zig-zag motion before crashing at the sign.

 

The unfamiliar drone flickered pitifully a few times, dim sparks sputtering out before shutting off and fell down on the pavement in broken cracks. The cafe's neon signage lost one glowing letter to its name in the dark cosmic background.

 

**.S.T.  .A.Y.**

 

***

 

“I wonder why Yongguk forced both their fate even when there was no hope left for Himchan?”

 

"I believe that if you don't give up, if you keep trying, there'll surely be a reward in the end. I mean, with how far humans have accomplished now, you could look it in a way that the universe seemed to love those with a stubborn heart."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> • songs on loop while writing || [Time](https://open.spotify.com/track/0PSpfF2PBA15I1creD4Noi?si=-nUvNbJCStu3XXThuL8vsA) | [A Model of the Universe](https://open.spotify.com/track/4f8vOdxAoeFABjX5iFXUCb?si=8mf1oSwJSlWVXwSejNdvDQ%22) | [Pilgrims On a Long Journey](https://open.spotify.com/track/3ZuXIVoa0q3D21CJY4ZLjd?si=NBngOBUKSwC3HGeuPC5n5g) | [Together We Will Live Forever ](https://open.spotify.com/track/2pr6us08iPNzIex5q6fMvI?si=tw9Pok3aTiCU8PlGTMjHMg)  
> • my soft bbys ||  
>   
> 


End file.
